


Nowhere to be found

by Brokenstar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Enemies to Friends, Female Pidge | Katie Holt, Galra Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hunk is trying his best, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Dork, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Psychological Torture, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Space Mom Allura (Voltron), Supportive Coran (Voltron), The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, Torture, nothing too descriptive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:34:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 42,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24626335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brokenstar/pseuds/Brokenstar
Summary: Shiro and Keith didn't crash into each other and land on the same planet, instead it was Lance who crashed into Keith. While running from the Galra empire who is searching for them, Lance and Keith have to overcome their rivalry to survive. While they are on the run, the team desperately is trying to find them and are being pulled to their limits as more challenges arrive.(takes place during episode 1 in season 2 and creates it's own plot on the way)
Relationships: Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Allura & Coran (Voltron), Allura & Lance (Voltron), Allura & Shiro (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Shiro, Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro
Comments: 14
Kudos: 83





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Be wary, because I have no idea what I'm doing, and I have no clue how long this series(if I stay motivated that long) will be! The first chapter is short, as an introduction, but you can be sure it will be longer in the future. So if you can get though my cringe with me, then let's begin suffering together, dear readers.

“Allura?” I could hear the calm in his voice break in the moment. “Allura! Who-”

“Wait!” I called out hopelessly. Coran looked panicked and was typing on the keyboard as fast as possible. My eyes could barely keep up with his quick movements.

“What’s-” Pidge called out, “Whoa-ah!”

I heard their shouts as I pressed my hands on the cold surface of the twin glass pillars connected to the ship. Standing helpless as I piloted the Castle, unable to move to the Paladins aid. Looking out as I saw the Lions, one by one fall out of the wormhole. My heart beat fast as I looked lost as the last color left. Vanished into space with only the pieces left for me to pick up. 

“Th-the Lions! They're gone!” I said it with horror creeping up into my voice.

They had left me. They had left me to be alone again. My mind criticised me, telling me that wasn’t right, but the truth held. The Lions were gone again, only this time with their paladins as well. Farther away than ever before.

I swallowed, clenching my jaw. It would be fine, it had to. The Castle could track the Lions, as long as the Palidions survived, we could find them. We could all survive this. My fam-my friends, the Paladins, weren't lost yet. Then we could fight once again. Stronger. 

_ Be the leader Father wanted. _ I told myself, again and again. What would he do? What could  _ I _ do?

I straightened myself up, trying not to clench my hands on the glass’s blue surface as I led the Castle. We needed to know where we were going. 

_ “Focus on the present first before planning the future.” _ Father’s voice rang in my head, the comforting low ton he always had when he gave wisdom out echoed. I wish I could’ve remembered more of what he had told me. 

I found my voice as I looked ahead towards the dark purple that had contaminated the wormhole azure blue.

“Do we know where we're going?” I asked, willing my voice not to shake.

Coran’s fingers flew across the keyboard, I couldn’t even tell if they hit those letters. He glanced up at me for a moment, and with one look I started to dread his answer.

“Well… It looked like we're being pulled into a black hole. From the readings it looks to be the ending of the wormhole.” He said sullenly.

“Oh.” Oh,  _ quiznak. _

I chewed on my lip, hearing the panic cries of the mice as they serccuried around my feet.

“What can we do?” I questioned. 

There had to be a way out of this, and exit, an escape route of some kind. It couldn’t end like this.

He stopped his typing, shoulders slumped as he looked up at me. In a desperate voice he said, “I don’t know.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't think I'd post this chapter so soon, but enjoy! This will probably be near the average, I believe, for the future chapters length. Hope ya enjoy!

“Allura!” I shouted into my comms with gritted teeth, but it was too late. The Red lion was pulled out of the hanger like the rest of the group. 

I pushed on my controls, but whatever Zarkon did was still having effects on Red. I couldn’t do anything as I was pulled away from the Ship. The others were shouting and I saw Shiro disappear in front of me with a flash of light.

There was a  _ thunk _ and I joilted forward as stupid Lance crashed into Red and pushed me straight into the purple walls of the warmhole. There was a blinding light as soon everything around me disappeared. 

I blinked trying to see through the black dots in my vision. Once I did the adrenaline that had coursed through my veins during the battle was now back in fullforce. In front of me were mountains of white and a large blue forest. 

I pulled back on my steering. But nothing happened as I was skyrocking down. 

“Red!? You really need-” A bump caused me to hit the back of my head on the metal chair. “-work for me, buddy!”

But nothing happened. The ground was coming closer as I barley bypassed the mountain with another large crash. I almost smacked my head into the seat again as the trees looked like where I was going to land.

The trees came up in seconds and before I even had time to do anything I was brought forward as I smacked my head hard on the cold steel of the floor as my world went dark.

  
  


Blinking my eyes to the darkness barely helped the pounding in my head. I layed there in the dark, wondering when the Castle lights would snap on. Usually that was the only quiet time of my day. When I was away from the others. I never minded it much, not like before when I was spending everyday in solitude for a year. But that was different. I was constantly working, and even though I felt the emptiness, the want to be around  _ someone, _ I had been fine. Now with being around people almost constantly… I didn’t know how to deal with it. Deal with wanting that time to myself, and actually having that want to be around them.

I sighed, putting my elbow over my head, maybe I just need more sleep-

I didn’t feel my hair. Not with my arm. I was wearing a helmet.

Shooting up into a sitting position, which was the worst to do, as immitaly I felt nausea. Memories rushed into my head like a truck. I stood up and almost tripped over the large chair in the dark.

“Red?” I called out in a small panic, but there was only a small response, a low wine. Though I felt relief when she answered, it wasn’t the best answer to receive. She was hurt, hurt from when I was so recklessly- “Don’t worry, I-I’ll fix you up.”

I made some progress in trying to navigate Red blind, stuck in an endless darkness that wasn’t night. Slowly, I made my way to a hatch, there was no way that I could out the front with it practically being buried. My gloved fingers traced over the ceiling as I searched for the handle. Finally finding it, I popped out of the hatch and was temporarily blind by the sun. 

I took a minute to squint my eyes and look around. It was a forest. An aqua forest. The mountains in the distance weren’t too far off, and I seemed to be on one of the sloops.

Once my eyes adjusted, I climbed out, taking in a view of the area. Farther off from the mountain looked to be a couple of towers, they were structured in a way that wasn’t at all natural, and meant that there was life on this planet. Hopefully peaceful.

But other than that, I had no idea where I was. I looked up at the sky, it was a darker blue than earth, even if it did have a star lighting the sky. Behind Red, above the long path of destruction that had slowed her stop, was a gray smoke. I wince, that didn’t look good for her. I was still amazed at how I even survived. 

But then my eyes caught something else. White. White smoke. It led to the mountain. My hopes rose instantly.

“Shiro?!” I asked in the comms. “Shiro? It’s Keith! Are you there? Hello? I-”

Someone groaned in the comms. “S...stop sh-shouting.”

My shoulders slumped at the voice and so did my hope. Of course it was Lance, I never had a good streak with luck. No, it couldn’t be Hunk or Pidge at least. They were fine, I even considered them friends. But nope, it was freaking  _ Lance. _

I sighed, “Hey Lance.”

I heard some shifting before a yelp. “Where the  _ quiznak _ are we?!”

“An alien plant, like  _ all _ the ones before it.” I replied bluntly.

“Yeah, no dip sherlock.” His voice cracked a bit, and there was a second before it became clear again. “-you?”

“What?” I asked back to stadic.

I waited a moment before his annoying voice appeared again. “-hear m-me? Keith?”

“Now I can.” I looked over to the mountains. “Hey, how’s blue doing? Where are you?”

“Oh-um, Blue’s fine.” That at least gave me some relief. “She kinda crashed into a mountain.”

I rolled my eyes. “I can see  _ that _ .”

“Where are you?” He asked, and I could imagine him looking around even though I knew he wouldn’t be able to see me. “I think I see your trail.”

“I crashed in the trees-on the other side of the mountain.”

There were some silences before he answered. “By the trail, I’m guessing Red isn’t okay?”

I winced, looking over the Red Lion have way buried in dirt with some sparking on the inside. She wasn’t in the best condition, and in no way ready to fly.

“...She’s taken a beating.” I answered.

There was some more static before any voice broke through. “So what do we do? Allura and Coran are back on the ship and the rest…”... _ we don’t know where they went. _

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. It wasn’t a nice thought to think of when they could be captured by the Galra at any time. But Allura could find us, she found the lions then she could help us. We just need to stay put, and with a glance at Red, I would have plenty of work.

“Keith?”

The name startled me out of my trail of thought.

“We should stay put, Allura and Coran can track the lions. Once they can come to us we’ll be fine. We even have some emergency food packets.”

“Uhmm…” Once Lance opened his mouth I groaned. Knowing too well what he was about to say. “...You mean those weren’t snacks Hunk put there? I do amitt they were aw-”

I took off my helmet to rest my hands in my face,  _ why Lance? I would’ve had a better chance with the mice. _ I ran my gloved hand though my sweaty mess of hair before talking it to Lance again. Knowing that I would probably have many words that I would regret once I spoke them. But the temptation was getting stronger. It was probably good Shiro wasn’t here...

“So you ate them.” I stated and there was guilty silence on the other end. I sighed,  _ patience yields focus. _ Shiro isn’t here but if he was that’s exactly what he would say. That’s what he would want me to do. “I have some and if we space them out long enough we should be able to last a week or two.”

In reality that amount of them alone could last me a month. I still could hear Allura’s voice as she gave them to me.

_ “It’s for emergencies, in case you get stuck on a planet or lost in space. Your signal should stay, but th-I want to be sure.” _

I had taken them without any other question. It wasn’t like it couldn’t have happened or that she couldn’t wormhole her way there… but there were chances. Chances like these that neither she or I wanted.

Lance took a long sigh, “So does that mean I’m gonna have to come over to see your mullet?”

“If you want food.” Was the reply back.

Lance groaned, “Fine. I’ll power up Blue. She’s a little powered down but should make the short trip.”

For a moment it was a natural response until I remembered the towers in the distance.

“Wait!” I called out. “Don’t do that! You're going to have to walk over.”

“Why?” He questioned back.

I stared at the towers, almost as if my look alone could tell me everything I need to know. “There are some towers in the distance, and I don’t know if it would be smart to let them see the Lions flying around.”

“How far off?”

“Don’t know. But I don’t want to risk it.”

“Ugh, you're paranoid, mullet.”

I rolled my eyes, “Fine by me if something goes wrong for you.”

Lance huffed and with a wine like a dog he asked, “Does this mean I have to  _ walk? _ ”

“I would assume so unless you suddenly could grow wings.”

“Fine. Is this payback for me not training as much as you?” His question came out of nowhere and I slipped my helmet on as I ventured into Red again.

“If it’s for you being dumb and eating your storage, then yes. That’s why you're the one to walk.”

He scuffed, “How dare you do this to me. If I come over and there aren’t any towers-”

“Then you’ll have food.” I retorted, hitting the lights on Red as they flickered on. “But the towers are over here.”

“Yeah right…”

Then there was a peaceful silence. Lance aparinly was making his way over, so I went to look at Red. Slipping off the helmet and leaving it another room so I wouldn’t have to listen to Lance. 

Near the front, I tried clicking on any of the buttons to get any reaction, but as expected nothing happened. I bent underneath, looking for an opening hatch to look inside. The surface was smooth but had odd indents on the sides. After a quick run in with the secret tool box that was hidden in a corner, I was successfully able to open the hatch to the controls. After I did it I wish that I didn’t.

I was never the best in engineering, not like Hunk who could understand it like reading a book with no difficulty. Or practically Pidge who lived and breathed coding and anything technical and could still understand it. However I could if I had a manual or some clue what alien wires meant, but I at least knew that the sparkined was bad.

The wires didn’t even look like anything I had seen. They were light green and blue with one dark purple. They seemed to be holding a liquid inside of them, and I honestly didn’t get how they were sparking. It was a mess, they overlapped each other and I had no idea where to start.

Thankfully there did seem to be a mannal in the toolbox… in Altean. Pidge had tinker with the Paladin's helmets before, much to Coran’s stress after hearing about it later, and put in a translator. But sometimes it wouldn’t work the best, as even Pidge had a hard time with it. She wasn’t fluent in the language , and more had to rely on Allura or Coran to check her work. I looked at the mannal with confusion.

‘ _ Steering functionality consist of goo electricity to run into boars thedhj to rocket wear in head. Start with pink then cross over to white in blue. Then hjdtojgslb,cxnjk ustdo that.’ _

I didn’t even try to untangle the riddle the mannal gave me and put it back into the box. I rubbed my face and put the panel back. My headache only confused my mind more. There wasn’t any way for me to fix Red. But if Allura came back quickly then… then hopeful Red would be okay.

The was a soft pur in my mind from Red, meant to be comforting. I leaned my head back on the chair.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered in the empty room. 

_ I’m sorry I did this to you Red. I… I didn’t think you’d end up this way. _

The response from Red wasn’t a comforting one, but more of one that spoke ‘Get a move on! Don’t stand here doing nothing! Fight on! I’ll always be by your side.’

I smiled at the message, or how it seemed. It was hard to describe what the lion meant. But I had more of a gut feeling of what she meant. The connection that ran deep inside me that told me what it meant. 

“Okay.” I responded and got to my feet with a small sway. I patted the seat before leaving the room. On the floor in the next room Lance’s loud voice rang out in annoyance.

“I  _ hate  _ these trees! If I trip on  _ one more root _ I’m going to start a forest fire!” He yelled with a thud, which I could assume was him kicking one.

I put the helmet on and climbed out of Red’s hatch. “They don’t seem too bad.” 

But that simple response only ended up with him getting louder. “Oh of course you would say that! Mr. Reckless Adventurer. But can I remind you that  _ I’m _ the one walking to your lazy mullet?”

I rolled my eyes, putting some spite into my words. “Maybe if you’d been smart then you wouldn’t have too. But then again you don’t have much brain cells in your head in the first place.”

“Oh, hardy-har. It’s not like you can say much for yourself, mullet. It’s-Oh, wait. That’s right, you don’t have a brain because your mullet takes up too much space and you used to have only two brain cells.”

“Really? That’s the best you can come up with?” I asked, he had had some better ones before. Maybe walking had tired him out… 

“I have more, some I’m still coming up with since I have nothing else to do on this endless walk you put me up too.”

“Your fault-”

“Oh yeah, it’s not like you were the one who insisted on me walking.” Lance retorted back.

I rolled my eyes with a huff, not answering as I jumped down with my jaketpack. I landed perfectly, and looked around the area. The trees had long roots that piled up, which I was willing to admit, but not to Lance’s face, that they would be hard to move through.

I paused a moment and looked towards the mountain. “If you're in the trees then can you see Red yet?”

There was a sigh, “I’m close I think, but these trees-” He went off for a minute and I didn’t care to pay attention to it,”-are awful. Blue is actually hidden from where I am. But I-Oh I see Red now, yesh.”

I stared up at the mountain, frowning, how long would it take him to get here? It’s already been two hours.

“You crashed hard.” I winced as I remembered my headache, which only now seemed to be fading. “I see the towers too.”

I smirked in a small sadisfaction, “Told you I wasn’t lying.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. It’ll take me a bit to get over to you. You better have some darn good food over there ‘cause otherwise I’m going for you.”

I huffed at the thought, humorous as it was, I knew he wouldn’t. At the moment we needed to rely on each other.

A shadow caught the corner of my eye. My purple eyes searched for the source but it had disappeared from view. I took out my bayard while Lance continued to talk. It might have been a leaf or something. Some part of my mind whispered, but after a minute everything seemed fine.

“-I’ve never wished for Hunk’s food more. I think I’m craving a-”

That's when something lunged out and kicked me to the ground with a yell. My helmet was knocked off as the creature pressed hard on my chest. I looked up to see a being with gray skin and long needle point teeth. It looked like it had walked straight out of a horror movie.

It opened its mouth wide and went for my neck. I barely had time to get my hands to stop it, preshing my palms against it’s head and mouth as it’s razor sharp teeth came nearer. I tried to use all of my strength to push him back. A long tongue flicker out of the mouth, going towards my wrist. It wrapped around like some snake and with a questionable strength started pulling my hand back.

My eyes glanced over to my bayard lying a few inches away. If I could get one hand free-

“Keith?!” I heard Lance yell. I had almost forgotten about him.

I pushed that thought out as was fighting the tongue- _ really? _ -forthright. With a grunt, I let go of the bottom jaw and let my hand swiftly grab my bayard and take a slash to the creature. I got it’s chest as it scurried back with a hiss.

With the extra time I started the boaster but only for something to slam into my back and go rolling on the ground. I got on my feet quickly as I dogged to the left from being pinned again. My jetpack flickered and for a moment fired up without my command and I was trying my best to stern myself towards Red. Then it cut out and with a yell, I barrel rolled onto Red and breathed a sigh of relief for not hearing anything break.

I stood up, breathing hard, and looked down to see fully the two creatures that attacked me. The one I hit was cowering away with it’s blood stain chest, which I smiled proudly on, and the other that had damaged my boaster hissed and attempted to climb Red with no avail. 

I was still on edge as the adrenaline in my veins was still leading its course. I kept my Bayard treaked on their movement. Now that I wasn’t fighting for my life, I could view much easier how the beast looked.

The creature’s almost look frog shaped, yet much, much larger. They were skinny, but by the strength of fighting off one I didn’t want to encounter it again. The teeth stood out too much for my liking, thin like needles, and their green eyes glared at me. They hissed and walked around the Lion, I kept eyes on both, not feeling any more security up here. I breathed for a couple of minutes trying to get my breath back. They soon left and I dared to grab my helmet that had still been down in the dirt.

Lance had stopped stouting, but from the sounds of it he wasn’t off the comms. There was heavy breathing on the other side, and almost a second after I put on the helmet on Red’s back. I didn’t want to spend a second on the ground with  _ those _ things, Lance spoke again.

“I’m coming.” It was more of a breath of jumbled noises than words, but it seemed more for himself than me.

“Lance-” 

“Keith?” I would've thought I had imagined the sound of relief in his voice. “What the hell happened?”

I eyed the forest, “Some creatures ambushed me. I would watch out for them, I think they damaged my jetpack.”

“What? Ho-and  _ I _ am out here with  _ them _ ?!” He yelled.

There weren’t any shadows in the forest, but I watched ever so closely. “Just be wary.”

I heard the click of his bayard forming as he said in a mocking tone, “‘Just be wary’, wow, thanks a lot! It’s not like I didn’t just hear all this screaming on the other end that total calmed my nerves!”

“I wasn’t sc-”

“So thanks for putting me on edge and literally  _ run _ towards your little crash site.”

I gazed back towards the mountain. After a second I asked, “How close are you now?”

There was a huff of annoyance, “Well since you made me run to try to save your-”

“I had it under control!” I said as he talked over me.

“-so I probably just covered a half an hour after I boasted myself half way through the trees.”

He would probably be here in the next two hours then. I glanced at the trees, if I braved the woods I could find some fire wood and start the fire so I could start using the rations. I sighed knowing that there wasn’t anything I could do but stall. Jumping to the ground, let’s just hope I didn’t meet those creatures again. Otherwise I might not be leaving this planet… alive, at least.

  
  


I had successfully started the fire! After an hour of working on it and finding a way to safely light it on Red, it worked! The helmet lay besides me, as I took it off when Lance started to complain every single second, and watched as the sun slowly set.

The fire was lit, and I had to sacrifice one of the water bottles to heat up some of the food so it wouldn’t be as terrible. I taped my fingers on Red, hearing the soft thump of a tone. Then I heard something in the distance. Which from my helmet was very clear.

“Hey, Keith!” Lance yelled.

I could see him in the distance from the path Red had made in her crash. He waved and jetpacked forward and landed on Red’s back.

He walked over with his helmet under his arm. His hair was a mess and he seemed winded from his travel. 

He looked to the fire first, seeing the rations and immitaleyed asked, “Is that food? Because that better darn well be food. I’m starving, thirsty, and am tired, and have no patience to deal with your mood, mullet.”

I rolled my eyes and tossed him a water bottle packet. He drank it up as he sat down near the fire and grabbed the food contain that I had heated over the fire.

I joined him in eating, and there were silences between us. I wasn’t much of a talker, not like Lance, but even for him he was quiet. I glanced at his form as soon the darkness on night came. He’s shoulder’s were slumped, and his eyes were almost in a daze. Maybe the journey over did take more out of him then I thought. 

“This food sucks.” He started suddenly.

A ghost of a smile passed my lips. “Yeah, but we don’t really get any other options right now.”

Lance rolled his eyes, “You could have picked something else.” He pointed out.

I raise my eyebrows, “There all are going to taste the same. At least I got to heat them up.”

Lance shook his head, “I bet Hunk could do better.”

He’s words would’ve been spitfull, but at the moment he seemed too tired to make them.

I softly replied, “Yeah, I bet he would.”

Lanced nodded, and we fell into the silences again. The night was still here, and I hoped the creatures were asleep. I shuddered as I recalled the memory from earlier. What would we do with them? My jetpack wasn’t in the best condition, Lance would have more of a chance since he didn’t even counter them. Maybe they were drawn in by Red’s crash?...

Lance suddenly stood up, having finished his meal, and looked at me with a tired look.

“I’m not making the trip back to Blue so where can I sleep? And-” He added, “It’s not going to be out here.”

I opened Red’d hatch, showing him with a gesture with which he rolled his eyes too, and dropped inside. “I can find you a blanket.”

“Great. Now I can put this day of awful traveling behind me. Now where would your beauty be supplied, because I look terrible.”

-

“Pidge!” Fake Hunk said. “We’re out of the green food goo!”

“Oh no!” I replied to the pile of trash in the shape of Hunk. “Now I have to eat the more awful stuff known as my rations cold! Too bad I couldn’t end up on an actual planet to do anything else!” 

The floating fluffy mustache animals watched my sarcasm with wide eyes. I went over to my floating rations and jumped inside Green to eat them. I was  _ so _ bored! The metal pieces that literally filled the area were just junk and there was nothing else, besides my fake friends and non-talking animals, to occupy my time! It was  _ terrible _ !

What was worse, was those nagging thoughts of where the others landed and how they were, plagued my mind constantly. I knew that Allura would find a way to come get us… but when? I glanced at my water and food stash. I couldn’t even tell how much time had passed, it could have been minute, hours-even  _ days!- _ for all I knew. 

I sighed, “You'll be fine Pidge, less annoying people around is a good thing! Besides, I bet there in the same situation as I am! Not like… not like there in any danger. Right?”

I hated the shakiness in my voice, the doubt in my mind. I needed to trust them. I did! But the thought…

The idea that they may disappear like Matt and Dad… that my annoying friends, who in my mind I knew I called family, might be lost to… the thought  _ terrified me _ .

And the worst part was, that I was just floating around in space, nothing to really do, but that at any moment  _ anything  _ could happen to them and what would I know?  _ When _ would I know?

That sent chills down my spine and contaminated my thoughts like a virus. I shook my head, pushing away the thoughts.  _ No! They're fine. They have to be. Just eat your food Katie, just focus on that. _

I gulped down the horrible rations, they might not have been too bad if I wasn’t used to Hunk’s cooking and floated around the area. But considering that I had to eat them dried, cold, and without any gravity, only led to me eating as little as possible in my appetite.

Roma and Marcus followed me around, or at least the same two fuzzy blue and yellow aliens did. The Green Lion was off, but she was more like in a resting state than anything else. And it wasn’t like I could really go anywhere. I groaned, kicked a piece of trash.

“There’s nothing! Nothing here! Not anything useful in this dump! Agh!”

I screamed into the silent space, knowing that no one could hear me. I folded my arms and sat, or at least tried to sit in a sitting position. But after a minute my sour mood had left and now I was just floating with an emptiness. My eyes gazed up into the trash above. They floated by slowly. How did they even get here? There weren't any ship parts, just random trash that had been left. Almost like… like a dump sight.

I perked up with the thought. Then ships might-though, who knows how recent that could happen… but then there was hope that  _ some _ technology was here. I just had to look more.

I didn’t have much of a plan set up. But the pure idea of working with something-putting my mind to use- was worth pursuing. Especially if it could get me any closer to get home and get my friends and family back.

The trash around me was random, and nothing really looked like it would’ve come from the same ship. There weren't any ship parts and more was what seemed like odd shapes put into metal. But it was hard to with the lighting I had anyways. If this was a dump site, or was used as one, then there was a chance I might come across something. Or even better yet, something _ s. _

I hoped that old stuff, any items that worked like earth’s or perhaps like the Atleans technology I was used to, would come across. I hoped that I would find something like that discarded.

It was just hard to tell items that were alien to me.  _ Literally _ , alien. I looked at some of the clumps of junk that piled together. I jump to it, Roma and Marcus follow me as I start to dig out items.

I glanced at the rope near my feet and pulled it up. Of course stuff was harder to see with the lack of light, but my helmet did more than scan it-thanks to some of my programing-it told me in writing how it could be used. Suddenly all around these missing pieces weren’t just random pieces of trash… These were tools I could use to connect with the Castle. Using Green I could…

A wide grin grew on my lips as I looked at Roma and Marcus.

“I’m going to contact the Castle and get us home.”

-

Coran’s words rushed over me, and I didn’t even nodice that he began to type again. ‘ _ I don’t know’  _ the simple words that impacted too much harm. He had always had an option, a goal-at least an idea. But he was frantic.

I felt oddly calm in the situation, so near to failure, yet I didn’t feel the need to cower. I remember the comforting words of my father as he told me these situations would come, and I would have to deal with them in one way or another. Calm was always good, you made better decisions when you were calm.

“Can we turn off the thrusters?” I asked.

He was typing frantically still, never ceasing his movement. “I’m trying to see but we're being pulled in! At this point the Castle of Lions will vanish!”

I search my mind frantically. There had to be a way. They had too! Think!

“Coran, turn off the power! Stop the ship!”

Immediately the lights went dark, but nothing happened, we were still moving forwards.

“It’s pulling us in still!” Coran cried, he turned to me now. Desperation was clear in his eyes. “What do we do?!”

I bite on my lip, a small habit my mother gave me. What was there to do? We had only ticks left! If we could only stop or leave-

An idea popped in my mind suddenly at the thought. “Coran, what if we shut everything off-including the wormhole?”

“B-but then the ship might be destroyed! Ripped in half with us in it!”

“It may not!” I said in hopeless optimism. “It’ll stop us from continuing in the Wormhole-”

“-Thus sprilling us into space and leaving us without power for who knows how many _ long _ !” He finished.

I looked back at the upcoming blackhole, “It’s our only chance, Coran.”

He looked at me, and with a small smile he said, “You're as reckless as your Father, but I trust you, Allura.”

I would have smiled back if the Termura bugs weren’t flying around in my stomach. I nodded and watched as the Castle was flying towards the blackhole. Taking a deep sigh, I commanded the Castle to halt.

Then there was such a large force that sent me flying onto the floor as the Castle spinned into space. I was knocked down on the floor with a grunt.

After a moment I realized that the Castle wasn’t moving forwards now, and that I wasn’t begging to be pulled into the vacuum of space. With a small gratitude I relax.

Coran was then by me in seconds, asking if I was alright and helping me up. I stood up and looked around to the empty space. “Whe-where are we?”

“I don’t know,”Coran amited. “The power is gone and there’s no way that we can track the Lions now…”

“But once I can get the power up, along with the wormhole, everything should be operational. Right?”

“Of course!” Coran responded, “But… I don’t know how long that will take. Or even how I would-”

I straightened myself up, a phase ran through my head again.  _ Be the leader Father wanted. _ A leader wouldn’t give up on their teammates. I needed to be there for them, and that meant working on getting the power up  _ now _ .

“Then show me the way and let’s get the Castle up together.”

Coran almost seemed surprised at my answer, but nodded and led me towards the hallway.  _ I’m coming.  _ I promised in my mind.  _ I’m coming for you, my friends. Please, just wait a little bit longer. _

-

I groaned. “Why am  _ I _ the one who has to go out to get wood?”

Keith, like he always did, made a snarky reply. “Because you're the one the creatures didn’t bother and actually has a working jetpack. Any more questions?”

“Um, yeah. Why did I have to walk so far? I already have a ton of sticks!”

The trees had a weird yellow bark that was tough, but apparently by Mullet’s standards it was ‘good’ firewood. What made the situation worse, was that I was  _ back _ in the forest that I had promised myself so many other times I wouldn’t go back into. I had had enough of jumping over roots and face planting for one day.

“Oh,” Keith replied. “That was just to get you further away from me.”

“Ha ha, so funny Keith. It’s not like there are any dangerous creatures out here whatsoever. Thanks alot for that.”

I could practically feel the roll of his eyes from here. 

“I’m gonna grab a rock from this mountain and throw it at your head. But remembering your mullet it’ll just graze over because you have as much hair it’ll act like a shield.”

He growled back, “It’s not a mullet!”

“Sorry if I only speak the truth.” I replied.

I jumped over a root and had to use my jetpack to jump on the larger ones to move forwards. It was hard to find stray sticks when the roots covered so much.

“So what do these creatures look like? A harmless bunny?” I asked, making a scan in the forest.

I didn’t know much about them, only that they gave Kieth a scare and left some of their red blood behind. I recalled the momentary adrenaline rush that I had when I heard Kieth yell and nothing but hissing as a reply. I couldn’t lie that then I only cared about getting to him and making sure he didn’t die. I was still debating if it was worth it if he got injured and became more humble and less of a butthead out of it. It was on the debat list.

“They're quick and will try to jump on you.” He replied.

I couldn’t even remember what he was doing. He had just woken me up to the sun and told me to go get more sticks. And I needed my beauty to rest! Especially after traveling for so long… I was starting to believe that Keith knew nothing about beauty.

“Great.” I responded.

Then I spotted a jackpot. A bunch of branches that fell down from a dying tree. If I could collect a lot, then there would be enough tonight as well. I frowned slightly, I would need something to help carry them in.

“Lance?” Keith called out on my silence.

“Sorry Keith,” I said. “I found the perfect stash so I’m out.”

“Wa-” But I had already set down the helmet and went to sort through the group. 

After a couple of minutes, I had my pile and stacked some of the shorter sticks in my helmet to carry up on the larger sticks. Now that I had a firm grip on the longer sticks, I could hold the shorter sticks under my chin. As long as I didn’t trip with my arms occupied I would be fine. And hopefully didn’t hit my head on something since my helmet was being used as a branch holder.

After a few minutes of testing the limits of my balance and focusing all my energy not to trip, I was nearing the camp. Or where Red crashed, when I saw something. I stopped my pace, finding a balance and squinted in the distance. After traveling in the forest for a time, I had learned a bit from moving around easier without tripping much, but also when something wasn’t a tree.

I held my breath as I watched whatever it was move towards the campsite. Was it one of the creatures? I could jetpack out so-

But it wasn’t. It wasn’t anything close to that because I saw the light pink color from the gun it was holding.

A  _ Galra _ .

My mind went into a panic. What was he doing here? Was he already on his planet? What if there were more? If it was a small group I wouldn’t have a problem, but what if they brought a ship? Blue couldn’t-Quiznak!

I watched him as he looked around, careful to stay out of his sight. He looked around before moving forward. I slowly dropped the branches silently and slipped on my helmet and followed him. 

It had only been about five minutes, before he vanished into the campsite. I waited on the outside, watching anyone who was still there, but it seemed that not even the one Galra I saw, was here. It was… abandoned. I stepped out cautiously and looked around the area. It seemed fine, nothing new.

I frowned, then was that one Galra a scout? If so then Keith and I woul-

Where was Keith? He would need to know about the Galra-he was probably inside Red. I made hasty steps, practically running over to Red when my foot hit metal.

The piece flew a few inches until I recognized it as Keith’s blade. The same blade that Keith never went without. The knife that lay abandoned next to Red.

My stomach dropped as I felt like some had pulled ice cold water over me. I horror clawed in my chest at the thought. I looked over to Red to see the same spot where the creature’s blood was, only to see where more splatter blood littered the ground.

And at that moment I felt sick, sick of the thought-which deep in my mind I knew as the truth-that Keith had been captured. And I had no clue on how to save  _ him _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day one has past and day two has begun.  
> Allura and Coran are a couple hours behind the others right now, but everyone should be caught up in the same time by now next chapter. Some days will pass quickly or more slow depends what occurs.  
> I do hope you enjoy this crappy chapter, and I will take any constructive criticism in the comments. So please, if you want to say anything, I am listening! ^v^!
> 
> -Brooke


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Chapter! Yay! Hope ya enjoy...

Three groups acted like search parties around the Red lion. The Captain wanted the Red Paladion alive, anything less would end in extremation of not only the soldier but the family as well… no one dared question an order like that. Not even the reason behind it.

I glanced at the others in the squad, they were all stone faced, as they usually were. It was taught from the very basic military camps to show the enemy no emotion-it could only be a weakness in war.

We moved through the wooded forest, it was slow, but the Captain wanted surprise and went extra lengths, costing us extra hours, to ensure that the Red Paladion wouldn’t know what hit him.

If he was still  _ there _ .

I shifted nervously, looking around the forest. I had quickly been briefed about the danger that lies in it. Even if the F’fin wasn’t a common creature to find, I didn’t want to be on the end of its mouth and tongue. Especially, since I was the only one in the group without a weapon on hand.

I stood out awkwardly from the rest, I wasn’t a soldier, or at least a good one. To them I was just a coder, the messenger. I held out the Cin’tk device, reading the area’s radio activity. Suddenly when it deemed close enough to the mighty Red Lion, it sparked to life. I jumped at the noise while the others snapped their attention to me.

I had forgotten that I had Giad on, and they couldn’t hear what I did. The weird ear pieces in my ears almost never left and I had long been accustomed to it. I waved the Cin’tk around, as the signal spiked again and I heard some words break through the static.

“-nce! Creatures-climb the lion-trouble-” The static was only because of the trees. I didn’t know the full picture but there had been difficulties with the radio waves before in them. Something to do with the trees that grew here. But as I had hoped, the Paladins comms were high tech, made by the Atleans I was told. So it wouldn’t be bothered by the trees as much, the tech was made for longer distances than my small Cin’tk.

I started walking towards the signal point and ignored the gaze of the others. The leader looked at me, and asked quietly what I could hear.

“Not much,” I said in a quiet tone. “But he’s near. Some of the creature’s are around.”

The leader nodded, saying something in his comm to the other groups, and with a raise of his hand the other soldiers took out their pistol’s as two troops stayed in the back with strange weapons I hadn’t seen before. The leader nodded his head, and I took the lead.

I soon found the area of the crash site, and the red paint on the Lion was the first thing to be seen through the blue leaves. Once we made a visual, the soldiers spread out and moved forwards slowly. The Galra soldiers stayed in the shadows, hidden with the help of their dark skin as they approached. Then my ears picked up a noise. The leader heard it as well, and the soldiers stopped.

There was a yell with a loud  _ thud _ . The soldiers moved again and went out into the clearing. Even from behind them I could perfectly see the scene.

There were two F’fin, one lay dead a few feet away, bleeding onto the dirt. The second one was on top of the Red Palatin who had his bayard in between its teeth and was struggling to get it off.

I heard the alien grunt as he tried to push back on the creature, but one tick later and the sound of the blaster went off. The gray F’fin fell off the Paladin and hissed as it ran away into the forest, leaving its compion behind.

The Paladian sat up, “Took you long en-” The words died on his lips as he stared back at us wided eyed. 

All guns aimed at him. 

The leader barked out to him, “Drop the weapon and hands to the side!”

The Alien focused on us with a hard glare as he dropped the bayard and put his hands up. One soldier came near him and barely lower his gun an-

He acted immediately. Grabbing the soldier and using him as a shield and pulling out another weapon. The soldier was shot in the arm as the Paladion rushed forwards towards us. He moved with grace and was fierce. The soldiers tried to shoot but he was too close. The soldiers could only doge his blade as he came, and some weren’t lucky enough to move out of the way. Nothing severe.

One shot glazed over his shoulder yet he showed no pain on his face. And the soldier went down before they could hit him again.

Then he looked at me, swung his blade towards my chest like his life depended on it. His purple eyes were calculated as he seemed to read every motion. He seemed more like a Galra then I had ever seen in a soldier at my rank. A true warrior.

But his blow never came. Instead he let out a shout as he fell to the ground unconscious.

“He's fierce, I’ll give that.” The leader said. He put his gun, smoking from the shot, back to his waist.

I looked down at the small form and saw a blue metal on his neck. Across from me was one of the other groups who had just made it in time to help the others that went down.  _ So that was the weird new weaponry. _ I thought.

“Get cuffs on him unless you want to feel his blade again! Let’s go!” The leader said.

Then he turned to me again, “Tell the Captain we got him and are headed back. The flight crew will be here within the hour to get the Lion.”

I nodded and flipped the radio signal to sending. “Captain, We have the Paladin and are making our way back…”

-

I hugged my side as the aching pain returned. I grunted, holding it with my hands. 

“Shiro?” Hunk asked, rushing to my side from the make-shifted fire. “What can I do?”

I hissed out, but managed to speak. “I’m fine-just, just another wave.”

The waves hit off and on. The glowing wound would grow and the low aching pain tenfold.  _ But I have had worst _ . I reminded myself.  _ I just needed to wait a little longer. _

It wasn’t a normal wound. Not because it was a glowing Alien wound, that was obvious, but because every time a wave hit, I felt something like a foreign thought. It wasn’t like a weird one, or a rash act… but more of a feeling that was anitplfied greatly. Like when I drank too much with my friends on a celebration night and words came too quickly without my knowledge.

Perhaps it was a side effect, a dose of my brain trying to copy the effects of alcohol to numb the pain, if that made any sense. Or the wound implied such feelings, I wouldn’t put it past the Witch.

“Oh, um, okay.” Hunk responded, he wrung his hands as he looked helpless. He stood in front of me a moment before he walked back to the fire and brought back one of the ration packets. “You need to eat, Shiro.”

I nodded and tried to forget the pain and focus on the taste. But even the awful taste of the food on my tongue wasn’t enough to pull me out of the pain. After a while it faded and I felt like I could think once again.

Hunk was keeping the fire going, but there wasn’t much in the white desolate place to do so. I picked myself up from the rock and sat closer to him. He startled for a moment, obviously got lost in thought. Then he settled down again.

“Do you think they’ll come for us?” He asked.

I looked to the revine not too far off. The animals had been scared off by the Yellow Lion’s huge form, and from the reactions they wouldn’t try now that both Lions were operational again.

I shook my head and chuckled, “No, you scared them off I believe.”

I turned to Hunk and his question came back to mind. _ Oh, he wasn’t talking about them, was he? _ But my response had gotten a smile out of him anyways.

“Don’t worry,” I replied. “They’ll come. I have no doubt.”

He looked at me with his dark bronze eyes. He smiled softly, “I hope so.”

The question wasn’t much as  _ if _ they would come, no, by his posture it was the question of  _ could _ they come. That was a question I wished to avoid but it didn’t stop my worrying like Hunk. I just had to focus on keeping myself alive along with him.

I looked over the horizon, there seemed to be mountains in the distance. Hunk moved from the fire to his Lion, unaware of some of my thoughts.

“Hunk.” I called out.

“Yeah?” He answered back from the Yellow Lions mouth.

“Let’s move closer to the mountains over there, we might be able to find a better selter.”

He looked into the distance at where I pointed, he walked over as he spoke.

“That might be a good idea, but can  _ you _ do that, Shiro? You can ride with me in the Yellow Lion and we can do it. I can even carry the Black Lion too.”

I shook my head, “The Black Lion is too heavy, I think I can make it.”

Hunk looked at me hesitantly, “Are you sure? We- _ I _ don't want you to get any worse.”

I smile a Hunk, encouragingly. Patting his shoulder with a light touch, “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

Hunk sighed, “Alright.” He glanced up at the sky, saying, “Well then, we better get moving to outrun the storm then.”

“Storm?” I asked.

He nodded behind him. I squinted into the distance to see something that looked like a form of a cloud.

He continued on, “The wind isn’t too bad, but I can guess that it’ll be here next night.”

I wouldn’t have seen anything out of the ordinary, but I trusted Hunk.

“Then let’s move.”

Getting caught in a storm would only worsen our circumstances, we would need to move fast. As I sat down in the now so-familiar seat, I only prayed that I wouldn’t get another wave of pain from my side. I didn’t dare look at it now, not after Hunk bandaged it. I didn’t want to be reminded that if help doesn’t come soon enough, Hunk might be leaving this planet  _ alone _ .

-

I blinked my eyes open to darkness and stretched my numb arms. I had fallen asleep again, didn’t I? I looked to the large panel I had been working on to see it already done, Coran’s work no doubt. I stood up to find the mice suddenly fighting for balance on my shoulders.

I quickly made clumsy motions to catch them in my hands. I barely caught them, but they all seem to have been fine...well except for the blue mouse that had been crushed by the larger mouse.

“Sorry little one!” I whispered to them and held them in my palm.

The tiny one stayed in my hair, which was a mess by now, but I didn’ have time to work on my appearance. I looked around for the tool box but to find it gone, like Coran was. I sighed, wishing he would have tried to wake me up, but couldn’t have known if he had already tried. 

I wiped the tiredness away from my eyes, and with the encouraging squeaks, I went to find Coran.

I wandered the halls to no avail. My steps echoing in the dark corrorways as a mockery to my ears. A simple reminder of all that I had lost. But I never tried dwelling on the thoughts, only in the deep night when I was awake to my memories that haunted me.

I shook my head, work. I had work to do, a mission to fulfill, a purpose. I quickened my pace to the last place I hoped to find Coran. 

I entered the control room to see Coran under the desk in the room. The keyboard had vanished, along with everything else that seemed useful. Which was part of the problem of trying to restore the power back to what controlled the power.

“Coran?” I asked, my voice had gone dry, and I probably needed to fetch some water for both me and Coran to drink.

“Princess Allura!” Coran greeted. He picked himself up from the floor to stand. He had dark circles under his eyes, I assumed without a doubt that I had matching ones.

“How was your rest?” He asked.

“Good, but you should have woken me. _ Both _ of us are needed to get the Castle up and running.” I replied, a little hurt from how he just had left me.

He rubbed the back on his head, even his mushate at this point looked ravelled. “Sorry about that. I did try to wake you, but you need the rest. Besides I was just-”

“You need rest too.” I reminded him.

Some emotion flashed across his face and he gazed down. “I’ll get rest when this is over, but for now you need it more. You'll have to wormhole to the Paladins afterall.”

I nodded with a small sigh, “Alright.”

We couldn’t fight, we’d waste too much energy on that then the task at hand. Even now we were fading.

“What are you working on?” I asked instead.

“Oh!” He gestured to the control table. “Once we can line the Donu lines up here, I was hoping we could get just enough power to the keypad to upboot the barmain crystal into our system which will spike up and hopefully-I'm’ not sure yet there’s so much I don’t know- but I think-”

“Coran,” I called, “Can you just say what you're doing  _ now _ ?”

He flushed a pink, understanding he went off again. “I’m hoping to start a connection from the power.”

“Okay, so what can I do then?” I asked.

For the last couple of hours I had just been handing him tools, yet also supporting in holding wires and keeping the small light for him to be able to see. I had only done sections that Coran had instructed me on before everything occurred. Unfortunately there wasn’t much of it that we needed to start the Castle up. It wasn’t much, but I knew it did help in the long run.

But even just among those small jobs I did to help, I was warn. Warn with frustration at the task itself and the constant worry for my Paladins elsewhere.

“I will need you to hold that wire there-” He lifted the wire to my view,”-while I try to connect this.”

I nodded, I dropped the mice in my hand on the floor. I crouched down near Coran as I steadily held the tube in hand. Hours ago he whistled a tune as he worked, but even now he seemed to just be focused on his task at hand. He worked for what felt like hours, but in reality only minutes passed. Or so I assumed. 

Without anything to tell the time, being in open space with no location, it was hard to tell what time it was and how much time had passed.

_ Maybe it’s been days and the Earthlings are already dead or they were captured by the Galra and are suffering in- _

I stopped my line of thought. No, I couldn’t go there. I had to maintain hope. Hope was what was going to get me through here, and that’s what I need. I couldn’t let my mind go, I needed to focus. For the team.

Then Coran sighed deeply, taking the wire I held from my hand and folded the wire in. He got up and handed a hand out to help me up too.

“Stay here,” He told me. “I’m going to run down and start trying to get the power up here. You should know when the keyboard appears. Once it does immensely type in Balmara 04, then I’ll come back. And we can go on from there.”

I nodded and watched him leave with a pang in my heart. He was coming back, I knew, but it didn’t stop my heart from racing at the thought of how long I needed to wait. To wait for something that wasn’t in my own control.

The tiny mouse in my hair soon tugged on my white strains, and I gently lifted her off of my head and into my palms. It looked at me with it’s wide eyes staring curiously at me.

“I’ll get us out of here.” I promised. “I’ll get them back.”

It sniffed at my hand and sat, almost waiting for something to happen. I set him on the floor and looked to the barren table. I tapped my fingers against the cold surface of the metal. 

Then a bright light blue lit in the darkness. It took me for surprises at first before I typed onto the keyboard in Atlean like Coron had asked. Once I did, the screen seemed to freeze for a time before the loading screen took over. Then while it was up, another icon popped up. It was a message or live broadcasted to the Castle. I almosted pressed it out of reflex, but I stopped for a moment.

_ Who would be messaging the Castle? _ I wondered as my thoughts spiraled into an anxious mess.  _ A call out of distress from the Lions? A threat from Zarkon? One of the colonies that we freed was now being taken over again? Or what if… what if it was a ransom message from the Galra as they had one of the Paladins? _

My finger hovered over the blinking message. I took a deep breath, calming my thoughts before pressing it.

“Hello? Anyone?” A fimlar voice asked. “Coran? Allura? Is anyone there?”

A smile over took my face as I exclaimed excitedly, “Pidge!”

-

I woke up to a lavender room. At first I thought I was still drifting in a dream, thoughts of Zarkon’s ships came to mind. But then it hit me once my eyes glanced from place to place. Every little detail I noticed, only made the dream more vivid than it already was.

Once the memories came back to me only made me panic more as I knew where I was. I tried to bring my hands down, or move my legs, but I was restricted. I looked up to my arms that were up above my head to see them chained to whatever I was on. My feet weren’t quiet on the ground and chained as well, and my arms achingly hanged as my body weight pulled on them.

My chest was bare as the tight black fabric that was the under armour was stripped down to my chest. The chill of the room didn’t make me shiver, but the mere thoughts of not even having that slight layer over my skin filled me with dread. Feeling even more defenseless without any armor.

I tried not to note the bruises on my arms and chest, or the burning feeling of pain in my shoulder as I felt the liquid from it leak downwards. I pulled on the chains on my hands, trying to figure out if I cou-

I hissed out in the small pain of the cuff closing more on my wrist. I tried to maintain steady breathing, don’t panic- _ But I’m in freaking chains on an enemy ship!- _ Patience yields focus- _ I can’t escape, can’t, can’t, can’t- _ You can’t think straight when your painicing, Keith- _ I was so stupid, stupid, stupid- _ Calm down. You'll get through this, the team- _ What about Lance? I doomed him, he’s probably already captured- _ Then break out- _ But how? Not in these cuffs. I can’t, stuck, stuck, stuck- _ Jus-

“ _ -ust  _ **_shut up!_ ** ” I yelled, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I blinked, and breathed hard as if I had held my breath under water.  _ Stay calm, Keith. _ I told myself.  _ Think it through slowly, not too much. Lance might not be captured, but there’s no telling. I could have led them there-If I was only smarted I could have helped us both- _ Stop. We don’t know yet. 

My mind felt divided into two, but soon everything seemed to calm down. Maybe it took minutes to sort though my thoughts, or it could’ve been hours. I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that  _ someone _ was bound to come, whether to talk… or something else. 

I didn’t glance at the table besides me, at glance it seemed to be a part of whatever I was on that was tilted upwards. I knew what things were on the table, and even the thought brought a shudder.  
I took a deep breath, okay, nothing to really work with and imobile, it’s fine. I took a glance at the door, who ever came in, I couldn’t give anything away. Nothing. The only strength that made me feel confident about that was my pure determination to keep my friends safe. 

_ So how will we escape? Voltron, if they hear, will try to come. _ I recalled the memories before the fight, the awful choice of going to save Allura.  _ No...I don’t want the team to come. They shouldn’t. _ I resolved.  _ Only more chance for them to be captured as well… it's math. One shouldn’t equal four or more. Not at the risk of the universe.  _

I sighed, then it should be up to me to get me out, hoping that the other Paladins don’t come for me on their own stupidity. Aft-

_ Lance. _ The name rang out in my head and brought memories, usually of annoyance and frustration, but this time it brought different thoughts.  _ What happened to Lance- Oh god-he would be coming back. He didn’t respond at all on the comms, he would’ve walked right into the Galra. He wouldn’t have seen it coming, all because I wasn’t ready to leave Red’s side. I’ve been captured and so are Red and Lance. All because of my st- _

_ Red. Red was caught again, wasn’t she? _ I felt like I had a sour taste in my mouth, and my rations from last night threatened to come up.  _ I brought her back. I brought her right back into Galra clutches… giving her own a breath of freedom before she got locked in a smaller cage. I di- _

The door opened, and before I could even possibly think of playing unconscious, two figures stepped in. By the look of it, a Druid and a Captain. At the sight of them meeting my eyes, I glared at them as I tightened my jaw. I won’t say  _ anything _ to them.

“Ah, you're awake, this is good timing then.” The Captain said, waking closer.

He had dark purple fur, and large ears. His eyes were pure yellow except for the cat eye pupil eyeing me. He had many scars on his face that he showed proudly, and held himself high, cocky.

“So what is the name of the guest I have on my ship?”

I said nothing and looked passed him towards the real threat. The Druid wore the cloak and the mask of the Druids. It held something in its hand but before I could look at it with more detail, the Captain stepped in the line of vision.

“If you say the right things, you won’t have to worry about him.” He replied.

I watched him carefully, trying to notice anything that could help me. He only seemed to have a small blaster on him, but with my hands cuffed…

“What’s your name, Red Paladian?” The Captain asked again.

I snarled this time at him, tired already of his scared face.

He sighed, “Then I guess if you won’t answer that, then you won’t answer my next question.”

_ I don’t know,  _ I thought sarcastically.  _ Try your luck, but you also might not like the answer. _

“Where are your other Paladins?”

I tried not to let my emotions get a hold of me, trying not to let him see the surprise and slight joy of knowing that  _ they _ didn’t know.  _ That also means they didn’t find Lance. _ My mind whispers in the back of my mind.

Something had slipped passed my glare, or maybe the Captain just guessed himself.

“Or do you even know yourself?”

At that, I spat in his face. He reeled back, shocked. Lifting his crawled hand to the wetness on his cheek. At the sight, instead of a stern glare, or any violent words I would have guessed would come, he smiled and chuckled instead.

“Ah, you're a fighter. Good. As I would have guessed. But in the morning you will tell me everything I wish to know.”

He looked at me for another moment, looking up and down at my figure. “Unless,” he continued. “You’d prefer to tell me now?”

I narrow my eyes at him. I will not  _ break. _ Not for him. Not for the Druid. And certainly not for the safety of my team. I would make sure of that.

He nodded to the Druid, “You know.”

And the Captain left, leaving alone with the masked Galra. I tried not to feel fearful, that wouldn’t help. But I couldn’t stop the chill that shivered down my spine as the Druid came close. 

They were silent, and I felt like the air was tense with the scene. The Druid set down the item they were carrying on the table, it glowed a soft yellow light. Immediately, I recognized it to be quintestenst.

The Druid looked up towards me, and was closer than I would’ve like.

“Your hand seems better.” He remarked with a husky voice.

For a moment I was confused before the pieces of memories came back and I couldn’t hide my surprise. It was the Galra from the secret base.

I could feel his smirk as he took a step closer, and felt smaller against his taller form. “Oh, so you do remember me? Good.”

Then in an instant he grabbed my chin and brought it close to his mask. His claws bit into my skin as he spoke with hate.

“I was in the high rankings with Haggar, trusted well at the base… until  _ you _ and your  _ team _ came. She lost trust in me after that. Now I’m a simple Druid in charge of the prisoners who need losing up. You will  _ pay _ for that.”

I glanced at the container on the table along with the other instruments.

“As you see,” He started, dropping his hand from my chin after imprinting his claws on it. “I bought something especially for you. Each Druid gets their amounts-but for their own reasons. But I am willing to share some with you… for my own experiment. After all… who knows what it will do to your whole body?”

The tone was calm with a slight glee in it, and that made everything worse. I was used to anger, some from myself, or annoyance… But calm was different than that. Calm was something that couldn’t be battled with when the other had everything to fear. Calm with your kidnappers was something worse. Calm meant that _ they _ had nothing to fear, and had everything in their control.

Because everything for them was working out perfectly  _ fine _ .

Only adding to my upcoming panic. They had confidence. They were confident that I wouldn’t escape. That didn’t bode well...not at all.

“Well, before we get started on that…” He walked back a step. “Let’s get you started talking.”

Then all I felt was pain as I saw something purple burst forth. I yelled out-no, I screamed out. Withering the table in the room. Screaming for no one to care or help.

-

It had taken me a bit, in reality hours, but I somehow got on the larger Galra ship by sneaking on one of the smaller ones on cargo. After finding Red abandoned, Galra ships came soon afterwards and was easy to sneak on… however I lost track of Red, and only hoped that I would find her later. My main focus wasn’t on her at the moment.

Honestly for the last five hours, it was miracle after miracle how I even got on the Galra ship. I had four times almost been caught, but I somehow made it.

Once, when I was clearing out the box right behind a Galra soldier to fit in, and he turned around only for me to duck under. But the closeness still left my heart beating. 

The second, when in my crate, a Galra banged on it and I also yelped out loudly. Somehow I kept my mouth shut for that jumpscare. Seriously, that was a horror movie moment for my poor heart.

Third, when I got out of a crate, a guard was right in front of me, to which I had to wait for five more minutes in the cramped box. It smelled like orange juice, which wasn’t as bad until it’s been two hours and you're done with your nose.  _ Seriously, I could never drink orange juice again. _

And the final fourth one that had happened an hour ago, when I found out there was a venting system and I could possibly crawl through. When I was trying to get the vent out, I might have… dropped it. Causing a loud noise that led to Guards over, but by then I had fixed it up and was hiding inside. 

My heart had never beat so fast in any other missions, or maybe it was because I knew that it was me and only me that was here. No back up, no Lion, just Lance in a huge honking ship with an army of Galra and trying to find one prisoner. Maybe I misjudged my skill and…

No. There was no giving up. I was here for Keith, and I was going to escape with Keith.  _ And in the meantime show him how awesome I am by saving his butt. _ Hopefully I could complete both, and which I really wanted to complete the last one.

One thing that had boasted some of my confidence, or just feeling relieved with safety, was my bayard. It hadn’t left my hand, and I had worked with my left half the time so I didn’t have to put it away. I don't want to risk the chance of putting it down and  _ then _ be in danger. So instead I had to travel the whole trip with it by my side.

I had to roll my eyes, of course it was because of Keith that I had to travel so much. In the last two days I guaranteed that I had done so much walking I could enter a competition and win for the longest walking traveler  _ and _ also the fastest.

Now I was trying to navigate the venting system by not navigating it. I had no map, so all I had to go on was down. Because of course that happened in every movie, comic, or song, all the prisons were in the basement, so I went down. Which turned out to be easier than I thought as soon I had come across one opening that went up and dowards. 

In all respect, the vents weren’t hard to move in at all. They were quite large and the drop I had to go down was the perfect size for me to get my feet on the wall and have my back against the other side. So sliding at first was a scary matter, as it was literally a five hundred feet drop underneath me, but soon I became really good at it.

It reminded me of the venting system in the Castle. Or well the elevator in the Castle that me and Keith had to climb. 

I tried to keep a map of where I had already been in the top level, hoping that I could create a somewhat good map from that. I was hoping that all my time from playing retro games, that were very outdated but still very cool, would help me with my memory of maps. After all, half the games I did play depended on the player to know the land without a guide or map. Such a cool detail.

_ Focus _ . I reminded myself, I needed to stay focused more than ever right now. This wasn’t any time to get lost in thought. Besides… one mistake here might be my last.

Once I got to one of the lowest levels, I apparently guessed right, and I had gotten to the prison levels. The vents were different in the section. Locks held down the panels above prisons.

I passed over prisoners who were also stuck on this ship. The thought filled me with regret as I pondered if the ships we faced in the lions also had prisoners. I moved on, a mission in mind.

I had to find Keith. In all honesty, I would have tried to go after him anyways, he was a part of the team. But also another part was… I couldn’t survive without the mullet.

Not going into the psychology of surviving on your own with any human contact, but also the will. I didn’t know that much about surviving in the wilderness, at least all I knew was from movies. And Keith had survived on his own for a longer time than me, and seemed to understand even how to do it on an alien planet. Even if he did get captured…

But that was the truth. I need Keith, and he needs me. He also probably needs me now, too. More than ever.

I started to smirk as I imagined what the meeting would be like. I would blast my way into his cell and in a cocky tone ask if he needed any help from the sharpshooter. Then he would roll his eyes, but have to accept my help, and then I would forever tell the story of how I had to rescue him. Already I felt my grin on my face as I crawled above the prisoners.

  
  


_ He wasn’t here _ , my mind stated, drawing up a blank. I scanned each and every cell from above, but he wasn’t here. Then a thought dawn on me, and I felt stupid for spending an hour searcing for him here.  _ He’s special, they wouldn’t put here. He’s somewhere else, away from the common prisoners. _

And like that, I was off, crawling towards a new area. But at the speed I was going, I would need a break, my arms were getting sore and my armor was uncomfortable crawling on. Not to mention the knife that I had wrapped up and carried all the way for Keith, He would kill me if I had left it behind.

I looked into new rooms, empty, but seemed more for stronger prisoners. It looked like they cuffed them up to a table of sorts. I moved on until I found the room.

I didn’t know it was Keith right away, I couldn’t quite see the Prisoner’s face in my position, but I could tell because it was the only room occupied. I also could pick out Keith’s ridiculous mullet anywhere. But the short amount of joy at finding Keith was doused.

There was a Druid in with him. The Druid was holding his face and talking to him. But I could only hear mumbles whatever they said. Then they dropped Keith’s face and stepped back.

I could only see what happened next with wide eyes and put a hand to my mouth as I tried to stay silent. Biting down on my tongue as I willed myself to not yell. But It didn’t matter because Keith’s screams would’ve covered up any noise I made.

The Druid had lighting pouring from their fingertips as they rapidly shocked Keith. Again and again. Never giving him a rest until he seemed to have passed out for only a second. Only then did I seem to feel a short amount of peace for him, to be able to rest. The Druid asked a question to which Keith didn’t answer. And it continued on. 

I felt sick. Sicker than I had been when I found Keith’s knife. I couldn’t watch-I, I couldn’t hear him scream and do absolutely  _ nothing _ .

I hadn’t really heard Keith scream-not- _ never _ like that. He was strong, always strong. So why did I fear now that he might break like his screams?

I didn’t notice how tight my grip on my bayard had been. I could feel the small energy it would have taken to grab my gun and shoot. But I held myself back. I couldn’t… It wouldn’t work.

It was like a sour bitter taste in my mouth. I need a plan, and that would take more time. So I left Keith… I couldn’t feel anything about it. I knew I couldn’t feel anything about it. I couldn’t get Keith out now, there had to be a plan. Otherwise we’d both get captured and my efforts would’ve been fruitless. I shook my head, I hated to think about Keith lying there in pain while I was trying to navigate tunnels. As he screamed for me-for anyone to come help him… and here I was going in the opposite direction.

No,  _ don’t think about it in that way. _ I reminded myself. _ Make every second count. Then I can come back and blow this place up to Hell. _

And with that a plan started forming and I made my way up the ship undetected. A bitter smile formed on my lips. If I got my way… they wouldn’t know what hit them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and I hoped you liked it. Still working on the other ones so I hope I can post them soon. Good day!
> 
> -Booke


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being late! I thought I would get this done sooner, but I'm terrible at timing and such. Well anyways, enjoy that chapter and a little celebration to have gotten passed the 15 kudos mark! Hurray!

The rain hammered outside of the cave. The Yellow and Black Lion sat outside to ensure no animals, mostly the threatening ones, would come inside with me and Shiro. We brought in a day supply of rations, as it looked to me as if it would be all day until this rainfall stopped.

I backed away from the entrance of the cave, the wind was picking up and blowing the water into the room. I sat next to Shiro by the fire. He was having another wave pass in his sleep. He gritted his teeth, but his eyes stayed shut. I looked at him, longing to help ease the pain, but it looked like I couldn’t do anything again. 

I felt a pang of guilt every time it happened. I knew it wasn’t my fault that he was hurt, I just wished I could’ve helped dress his wound better. Or at least had some type of medical bag in Yellow. Or-Actually… I hadn’t looked at it much after I dressed it, maybe I should. I knew Shiro hadn’t, who knows it could even be infected. I wasn’t a doctor, not even someone who had any idea of some alien magic wound, but I could try. Anything at this point could help, right?

But then again… would it hurt Shiro? No it wouldn’t be  _ that _ sensitive… but could it? What about Shiro? Was he too afraid to look at it? To see… to know the damage? Would it be an invasion of his privacy to see?

I shook my head, no I wouldn’t intrude on Shiro like that. It was his choice if he didn’t want to see it or anyone else... _ but what if it's worse? When would I know? _

I wrung my hands together. Flipping the thought around, until curiosity got the better of me and I leaned over to Shiro and bent down to his side.

So slowly, I unwrapped the bandages at Shiro’s side to look at the wound. I focused on unwrapping them first before glancing at the injury. My hands moved steadily, like every time I used a kitchen knife, knowing and obeying my every command. Shiro’s wave passed, and he slept peacefully again, which helped me calm myself as well. Once I was done I dropped them to the floor and glanced at the wound.

It was still glowing as brightly as before, but it had extended. Largely. The patch of where it used to be only a claw mark, had moved and formed into one wound. The glow was expanding largely-fast. I gulped as I noticed it extended past the ripped part of the shirt, growing larger every minute, like an infection.

I put the bandages back. Perteing I didn’t see. Like the worry now had only increased tenfold.  _ Shiro had to get back to the Castle, and it had to be tonight _ .

Well maybe not  _ tonight _ , but definitely soon. I wasn’t a doctor, but I knew when something was dangerous. The last couple of months have taught me that. 

I tried not to think about it, I tried not to remember how many times Shiro had told me he was fine, but how I knew he was lying. All this time, and he was  _ dying _ . How at any possible moment he could leave me-he could  _ di- He might not make it back to the Castle of lions… _

I froze. It was like ice had increased my body, and suddenly the draft from the rain was so much colder than it had been.  _ Shiro… would die from this. Shiro, the strong, encouraging leader… could fall. Could leave the rest of us… _ And suddenly, I felt valuable. I wanted to run inside the Yellow lion, protected by the shields and protein I was safe. Safe like at home. Where my only concerns were if I would run out of baking supplies. But I wasn’t there. I was in a cave with a downpour outside. I was in a cave with somebody dying next to me.

Time was running out. Time was running out for Shior. For me. And perhaps the team as well. Who knows when they’d come? What if Shiro wasn’t-

_ Stay calm, Hunk. I remind myself. I just need to rely on the team to come. I just need to trust that Shiro would be stubborn enough to hold out longer against death. I would… I would need to stay calm. _

I ran a hand through my hair. It was getting longer by the weeks. I sighed, it would be okay, the team would come for us.  _ Everything would be A-okay. Shiro would be fine. I just have to stay on the bright side of things. Look at the silver lining. Always look. _

“Hunk? Are you okay?” I heard Shiro ask.

I jerked my head up, “I’m-o-yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, did I wake you?”

He looked at me with a tired gaze, I wished he would sleep more. Already he looked like a zombie with those circles under his eyes.

He shook his head. “No. No you didn’t. Has it let up yet?”

I glanced outside, almost forgetting about it. I tried to cover my nervousness in my voice. “Oh, uh, no. I think it’ll rain for the day. The clouds were, um, a little dark.”

“Mmm.” Shiro sat up with a grunt, “Well it’s a good thing that we found shetter at the last second, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” I responded, gazing outside. Not really hearing his words over the flood of thoughts. 

It was pouring, and we couldn’t see anything from the cave… so what would happen if Allura came now? What would stop us from seeing her? What if she came, and didn’t see us so then Shiro would-

“-Hunk?” Shiro asked.

“What?” I snapped out of my thoughts and looked over at the concerned Shiro.

He frowned at me, “Are you sure you're okay? You seem… dazed.”

“Oh-Uh-Yes, I-uh. Yeah.” I managed to stutter out.

There was a long awkward pause before Shiro sighed, “So what happened?”

“What-nothing happening?” I said perhaps too quickly.

He looked at me for a moment before something dawned on him. “Oh…”

He touched his side, “How bad does it look?”

I chewed on my lip, looking everywhere but at his gaze. “Fine, perfectly fine! I don’t know why you would think that-”

Shiro gave out a chuckle, but it wasn’t from joy. It was empty. “That bad, huh? Well I can’t say I’m surprised…”

Guilt clawed at my chest, as I gazed at his wound. Images popping to my mind of the state of it. We sat in silence before Shiro grabbed the food packets.

“I would say its near morning, let’s have some breakfast”

I looked to the light of the outside, it more seemed like a dinner, but without any sun to clearly show the day, it could've been the middle of the night for all I knew.

I took my food packet and tried not to wince as my taste buds wanted to reject the food. The package of the bag was louder than me and Shiro’s conversation. Without much happening everything seemed duller. Then Shiro stopped eating for a second, pausing and looked like he was listening to something.

“Shiro?” I asked, putting down my food. “What is it?”

My mind leaped to the creatures that had attacked us earlier. The same ones that had almost taken Shiro out if I hadn’t gotten to him first with the Yellow Lion. 

But when I listened too, I thought I heard a voice. It was small and crackled. I frowned, looking around, where could it have come from-?

In a moment my hands sweeped up my helmet from the cave floor and heard a beautiful voice on the other end.

“Shiro? Hunk? It’s Pidge. Where are you guys?” 

“Pidge!” I shouted in pure happiness. Nothing could have made me happier then her voice in my ears. “Where here! Shiro’s hurt but we have both the Lions!”

“Hunk!” Pidge shouted back in glee. “Buddy!-Wait Shiro’s hurt? Okay-Allura and Coran fixed the Castle so we can put him in a healing pod and-”

“The castle was damaged?” I asked.

“Yeah, badly, but they got it up with my help a little later.”

“W-” I didn't finish the words as Shiro had interrupted.

“Pidge? Pidge, we need to get to the Castle before we can talk about everything.” Shiro replied.

“Oh-ah-yeah, Sorry,” She replied with a little guiltiness in her voice.

“Where are you in the mountains, Shiro?” A new voice asked, it was Allura’s. She usually sounded bright, but she sounded… tired.

“Oh!” I answered before Shiro. “Where is the beginning of the nearby reven. Where the mountains start to rise. You might be able to see the lions…”

“I see them!” Pidge exclaimed loudly.

In pure excitement I ran to the entrance of the cave and looked upwards to see the Green lion hovering above. I gave a wave before I headed back inside with Shiro. He walked with a slight hunch, but soon he came to the entrance and let down Black as I got into Yellow. I never felt quite the rush of joy seeing the Castle ship before as we docked. Never has the Yellow lion felt so fast to fly up. Maybe Yellow felt the same excitement I did...

Once I lowered Yellow, The Green lion lower as well and Pidge practically ran into my open arms as we hugged.

“I missed you!” Pidge told me as I repeated it back to her too. 

I realised Pidge as Allura and Coran ran out. Shiro walked out of the Black Lion holding his side and all of us took him to the medical bay immitaly. Shiro, without much convincing needed from the other, gladly got into a healing pod. I didn’t miss the slight frown from Allura as she saw the wound on Shiro. But it didn’t matter anymore. Shiro was saved from the wound, and that's all that mattered.

Then what felt like a second, but really it had already been an hour, I was on the bridge of the Castle with Pidge, Allura, and Coran talking all about what happened.

Over everything going on, and at such a speed that I could barely keep up with everything… I had forgotten all of my panic over Shiro's wound. Or what state Shiro had even been in. Perhaps… perhaps I shouldn’t have forgotten that detail at all...

Allura finished up her story which Pidge had interrupted slightly every now and then to tell hers.

“-then with Pidges unexpected call, she and Coran got the extra help to start the castle up again. Which leads us to her rescue and yours!”

I looked around the Castle, trying to imagine it pulled into the darkness and completely unoperational.

“Wow.” I said, then turning back to them, “So then what about Lance and Keith?”

The princess smiled, “That where we are head next. Coran can you-”

The hollowgram map appeared and filled the room before Allura had time to finish. It looked just like it had before, when we first were going after lions. It was scrolled on one planet in the solar system of which the name I couldn’t read. One blinking dot was on there, a faint color.

The princess frowned, worry crept into her face. “That’s different.” She muttered.

“Was there two dots before?” I asked.

Allura paused, biting her lip before she responded. “I-I don’t remember…”

“Was the Red Lion damaged that badly?” Pidge asked, but Allura didn’t reply. Only staring into the hologram of the planet with only one blinking dot.

“Well...I think I saw them crash into each other when going into the wormhole. Do you think they're together like me and Shiro were?” I questioned.

“That would make sense, right?” Pidge said, her tone shaky at the end.

“Yes…” Allura agreed, but not too confident.

“Or maybe the Red Lion needs more time to reboot-” I said. Thinking of how Yellow had to have a bit of time reboot. It had almost been too late before I went to Shiro to save him. “-besides everything should be fine. I’m almost positive Lance and Keith should be together.”

I tried to reason it, the silver lining. Always looked at the silver lining.

“Yeah, of course your right.” The Princess replied without looking convinced.

She took a deep breath, as she said loudly, “I’ll prepare the wormhole, Pidge and Hunk, go to your Lions.”

We nodded and got going. I was just praying we weren’t too late.

-

I woke up this time to stare at the ceiling. Every inch of my body ached, and I felt like I had just gone through the gauntlet. I groaned as I tried shifting myself but still found myself cuffed to the table.  _ Please, _ I begged in my mind.  _ Please just stop. Please... _

“You're awake,” said the dreaded voice. 

I tried to keep my breathing even, but it started going quickly on it’s own. I knew what happened now, I didn’t like it. I couldn’t even speak now, not with my voices in raggs from screaming constantly. But I soon found out that wasn’t true.

I looked up to see the Druid mask looking over me as it held an injection in hand. It was full of quintessence. The Druid chuckled at my reactions, as I didn’t have the energy to hide it.

“Don’t worry,” he said calmly, “It won’t kill you. I don't know to what degree it will do to you, all species are different, but we will see. Won’t we?”

I tried to struggle, to tense up, but I felt the needle go into my arm and I was too late. For a moment, it felt like someone had poured molten lava into my veins, I withered on the table. A high pitch sound bursting from my lips that I couldn’t contain. It lasted longer than the lighting had felt. It lasted for an eternity,  _ buring _ me from the inside out.

Then everything was silent and I embraced the darkness that took me.

  
  


Mumbles. I heard mumbles, loud ones. Or maybe not. The floor was blurry. Maybe I need glasses. Matt had glasses, he was cool. I missed Matt. Where was Matt? Where was Shiro?

I closed my eyes, I was  _ so _ tired. Maybe I could rest more. Sleep sounded nice. Sleep was always nice. But it seemed I got less and less daily. Daily? Heh, maybe that’s why. Someone grabbed me and drug me on the floor. Well maybe two people. Because my head didn’t hit the floor. I could barely focus on the floor, my eyes kept drooping. I was so tired…

I was thrown into a room, hissing a small bit as my head collided with the floor. That wasn't very nice. But it was very comfy on the floor. I could fall asleep…

There was an annoying noise, like a soft yell. I just wanted to sleep. But soon it disappeared and everything was silent again. It was nice. Sleeping was nice, but I felt more like I was waking up now. Something in my subconscious told me I should, even if I didn’t like it.

So slowly my senses started to come back. I ached all over, and some of my muscles twitched in some irritation. My shoulder aches like I had used it too much. I gazed at the purple room walls in front of me as I started to get a headache. I started to recall my memories and was suddenly glad to be alone once again.

I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up next to a wall. Trying to get back my mind into its rightful order.

_ What did they drug me with? _ I wondered, rubbing my face. My hands went up to where that Druid injected me with the quintessence, but it was only swollen. My hand drifted down to where one of the soldiers shot me, but I was amazed to find the wound gone, only a touchive bruise left. How did-?

I shook my head. I didn’t want to know. It was gone, and I was only left aching in return. That’s all I need to know. I sighed, rubbing my hands over my aching head. I looked around the room to come up with nothing. Nothing that could be useful. The only way to tell the door apart from the rest of the rooms, was that there was a tiny window that let the purple light in and the noise from the centuries going down and up the halls on their patrols.

If I felt more awake, I would’ve tried to wait by the door and jump on the first person to walk through it… But my tired legs refused to move.

I felt more awake now, but paranoia crept into my mind.  _ It had been too long _ . My mind kept telling me.  _ He’ll come back. He’s not done. They’ll want answers and the next thing you'll know is that you'll break. _

No. No I wouldn’t. I refused to break. Not for them. I gritted my teeth, and pulled on my hair. My breathing rising as it sounded like it was directly in my ear. Everytime the steps echoed near my door I felt myself break more. Eye widening in fear. Hands pulling at my hair. Body going tense. Ears lowering down. Breathing going quiet. I-

The sound faded away. But that wasn’t what stopped me. It was the hair that touched my shoulder on both sides on my neck. The feeling of unfamiliar muscles near my ears. The realization stopped me.

Suddenly it was like the world went silent outside, and the time stopped in the moment. It was almost out of reflex that I reached up towards my ears. Feeling like short cat hair and a large feeling cat ear were my human ones seemed to disappear. Feelin my ears  _ shift _ , when I knew they never had before.

_ I forgot to breath. _

I forgot what shock felt like. I had felt it so long ago… never accepting the truth until they had lowered his body into the ground. I only recalled the smell of burned firewood suddenly vanishing like it wasn’t there. The thing that had always distinguished Dad from everyone just by that smell always clung to his clothes. Now the smell only brings unwanted memories that leave a rotten taste in my mouth at the thoughts. The regret of what I hadn’t learned from him before he was gone. Forgetting the very conversation we had last to that shock.

The shock that took your breath away. The kind that for minutes, you kept denying the truth. Hoping that if you don’t believe it long enough it will all fade. But it never does. Your heart seems to stop at the sudden rush of wonders in your mind. The world slows down in it’s turning.

The shock I had felt when Shiro was declared gone. I had denied it with everything I knew. Refusing to accept it until his body was lowered in the earth like my fathers. 

But I couldn’t deny this… no. No, I couldn’t. I couldn’t deny that I don't feel what I did, because I would only be joking with myself and feeding myself lies again. Lies that once reviled by the truth ripped and tore at the mind until you're only broken again. Broken and have to piece together images of who you used to be and remake yourself. 

I had only done that once. And I couldn’t handle it happening to me again. I couldn’t handle what was the lie. Because it was only easier to believe and a killer to be revealed the truth.

So I could only take the shock and piece together the truth. The truth that I wasn’t normal.

I had always known in the back of my mind. Always a part of me doubting if I was like the rest. I thought it was personality wise… but it looked to be something else. Maybe that’s why I was an outcast. Even humans knew that an imposter was false.

The quintest only revealed the truth. Something that had lied in my DNA from the beginning. I didn’t want to think of what other Alien I was from. But the ears and other evidence gave it away. I didn’t know how… but I had Galra DNA.

My dagger had a Galra symbol. I knew it had looked familiar once I had seen some of it on missions. I couldn’t bring myself to tell the others… but I guess now there wouldn’t be any hiding it. It was clear as day, and they would see me for who I really am… that is if I get to see them again.

I looked at my hand. A human hand that looked too purple with the purple lights. Why could I have-

A teardrop landed on my arm. I lightly touched my face to feel more wetness.  _ I guess I really am pathetic. _

I hugged my knees tightly, and tried to think of something else. But in a few minutes I was asleep.

-

Keith had given me a heart attack. Almost everything was set into motion. I checked on Keith for a moment and he was gone from the room. I mean, Keith needs a break and heck I would’ve given him one too, but that didn’t comfort me. Thankfully I had found him in one of the cells completely passed out. I had tried to whisper yell at him, but he didn’t budge. 

So instead I let him rest, he more than needed it. I had taken a nap accidentally for some hours as well. It hadn’t at all been planned, and I drifted off as soon as I found the rations again. I had woken up with nothing to tell the time, only feeling more rested and guessed. But that didn’t stop me from continuing along with my plan. I had found Keith’s armor completely on lock down. Honestly, did they have nothing in these vents for security? Have they not seen action movies? I could practically spy on anyone as long as I was quiet enough. 

At the moment I was doing that exactly. I looked down at my position as Keith’s so called “hidden armor”. There were two guards in the room, the door was shut, and they seemed to be messing around. 

They joke around like friends and talk about their life. It was… hard to hear. To remember that I wasn’t the only one with family waiting for me to come back home. I could only stand the conversation for a minute before I decided that I couldn’t wait.

Instead of waiting for them to leave like planned, I jumped down from the vent after kicking it and drew my bayard and shot both of them in the chest. They crumpled on the floor with a  _ thud _ .

Without a second glance, I took the armor and threw pieces of it up the vent. It wasn’t as cool as it had been in my head. But it worked. Besides, I could always alter the story when I told it to others.  _ If I did make it out of her miraculously… _

The helmet was the last to be thrown in, and using my helpful jetpack I jumped in the vent and slid the vent panel back into place. With my arms full of armor, I followed my tracks and marks on the wall to the space. I worked my way slowly to a more opened area. Then to make sure I wouldn’t miss my cue I started my way toward Keith.

If everything worked out like it was meant to...then me and Keith should be making way to sweet freedom in the next hour or two. Everything was going to go perfectly fine. It had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day two has passed and the being of third day has begun.
> 
> ...I'm sorry I'm a Glara Keith fan. I do think that, and hoped the show would've done it too, Keith would show more of his Galra side. Since he is half, it would make since if he would adapted some characteristics. Well now that that event has occurred... what will happen to Lance and Kieth next? How will they react??? What's going to happen?!  
> Find out next time! ;) Hope ya enjoyed it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm Back! (Sorry for the wait, had to take a week off) I have decide not to try to make any promises for when I write, because no matter what, it never goes that way! ...yay...  
> Hope ya enjoy this crappy mess of words!

When I woke up in the cell again I thought I had dreamed everything. My ears felt normal again, and for a split second I thought I was fine. That I was  _ human _ .

Then I heard the steps. They were out of the sentries contest on rhythm ones. My heart missed a beat when I first heard them, and my stomach sank to my knees. I knew who was coming. As they came close my hearing felt more defined, and I didn’t want to touch my ears to see what that meant. I sat still as the footsteps stopped outside the door.

With a  _ swoosh _ , the door opened to the robed man with the mask. I glared at him as he entered.

He paused at the doorway a moment, looking at me before he stridded in confidently. His voice was sickening gleeful, “It seems that I was right. The quintessence  _ did _ reveal something interesting... Who knew Voltron had a Galra on their team?”

I flinched at the mention and looked away. His steps were close, and outside the doors I could see a few sentries positioned.

A hand grabbed my chin and forced me to look up into the masked hollow eyes. “Ah, yes, we took some data from your DNA while you were out. It will be useful in the future, don’t you think? The scans can’t show your lineage, but from the quintessence result… your most likely a  _ half breed _ .”

He spat the name out as his claws dug into my chin again. My hands were already around his grip, but I didn’t dare try to fight the Druid. I had a hard enough time with a weapon in hand. Without was…

His other hand touched one of my ears, which in instinct twitched in his touch, but he didn’t stop. “Ears… you hadn’t had them before. Yet your skin had…”

He pondered for a moment, and I tried to remain emotionless under his gaze. But I didn't like the thought of something that came to his mind. I tried not to wince at the thought of Haggar’s experiment on Shiro. What this druid could do to me like Shiro...

He pulled back his hand from my chin and ear. Standing now, “Follow me.”

He walked to the door, only looking back when I didn't come as well. With his gaze, I stood up, watching him in the corner of my eye. There were four sentries that surrounded me. Two in front and two in back. The Druid walked behind me as the sentries led the way.

I felt a desperation in me. Last time I was dragged down these halls. This might be the only time that I’m actually going to walk. My heart beated harder in my chest, loud enough I was sure that everyone on the ship could hear it. I wasn’t cuffed yet, which wouldn’t last for long. Who knows what would be next time- _ if there was one. _

A corner appeared in the hallways and in second I dodged out of the sentries' way and made it two steps before my nerves felt like they were on fire and I was on the ground. I thought I could’ve sworn to hear someone faint call my name. But all I knew was that I was screaming loudly again. Withering on the floor and letting my voice echo down the barren halls.

Then it was gone, and I was left to try to get enough air in my lungs after losing it all yelling. I felt the metal fingers wrap around my arms and drag me to the torture room.

I had forgotten briefly about the Druid. Now I got an extra dose of pain.  _ Nice going Keith. This is what happens when you don’t think. _

The sentries tossed me on the table and chained my hands and feet again. I rested my head on the table, getting my thoughts in order. The Druid appeared again, leaning close near my face.

“I’m surprised I hadn’t seen it before.” He admitted. “Your eyes look like the Prince’s, not surprised as both of you are the half brees of the Galra.”

I kept my mouth closed in a stubbornness.  _ Not one word _ . I reminded myself.  _ Once one is out… more can come later _ .

He smiled underneath the mask. I couldn’t see it, but something inside me knew whatever happened next was going to be  _ dreadful. _ A chill went down my spine when I felt a finger slide along my leg.

“I was going to save this until later, using only the magic to loosen your tongue… but it seems you want to escape sooner or later. So I prepared something special for you.”

What was worse was that I could only hear his voice, I couldn’t see what he was doing at all. He made sure I would be fully focused on the pain. The mere thought made me sick at what would come.

I felt something cold press on my leg, and there was a pinch near my knee.

“I wouldn't move, Red Paladian.” The Druid said. “I’m not much of a fan of machinery, but this is a fun one. It takes some time but… well you'll know the sidiffects.”

There was a low hum. And then the press on my leg started becoming heavier, and the point near my knee started to spin. The pressed continued pressing down, but I was occupied paying attention to what the point was doing. The point started drilling into my skin. After first it felt small, sounding louder than it was. Only like a needle to me. 

But it didn’t  _ stop _ .

It continued to the side on my knee. And that’s when I started screaming out. Not only did the presser feel like my leg was breaking down underth the weight, but the metal point was going into my skin and pulling it apart. I couldn’t even tell that the warm liquid running down my legs was blood. My only thoughts in my brain were of pain. Of the burning sensation that was ripping my skin to shreds.

Then it all stopped. I breathed heavily and I almost didn’t hear what was happening. But my cursed ears picked it up easier than it used to be.

“-intruder. The Armor is gone and two soldiers are dead by gunshots.”

The Druid growled. “Send out a search party. I’ll stand here as a guard in case whomever came, also comes for him too.”

There was a  _ swoosh _ and the soldier was gone. 

“Don’t worry,” I heard the Druid say to me. “I will come back and we can finish your leg, and in time do the other as well. I’ll look forward to it, Paladin.”

He was gone. And I breathe in peace. I tried not to focus on the pain in my leg, at how it burned with pain. Breathing was easier with the Druid gone. I tried to ignore how rough my voice was from screaming. My breathing was ragged, but soon it was harder to hear again...normal again.

There was a loud audible  _ clang _ , and a grunted as something fell into the room. For a moment I thought I had hallucinated it. But there was a gunshot sound and the weight on my leg disappeared. More noise before I noticed my feet were free. Then my hands, and leaning over me was Lance in all his blue armor.

He held out his bayard but soon put it away to help me up.

“You shouldn’t be here.” I blurted out in a cracked voice, staring up at him in disbelief. 

He rolled his eyes, “If the team was here it would’ve been easier, but I had a plan. I promise.”

I shook my head, sitting up on the table. Ignoring the wound on my leg and pushing him, “Lance you need to leave  _ now _ .”

He gave a confused smile, “I’m here to rescue you. I know you would have preferred youse-”

I shook my head, “No-no-Lance they’ll get you too-and, and, and-”

“I’m fine.” He instead came closer but I tried to push him away.

My mind was in a rush and Lance gained a twin for a second or two. I shook my head, “It isn’t safe-”

“Of course it's not.” He snapped, “But I’m here to get you now, so such it up”

“No-No its- I  _ won’t _ wo-”

“It’s alright. We wouldn’t get caught. We just have to hurry now, okay? I have a plan. You're coming with willing or not.”

“I don’t like your plans.” I said before I could even think about it first.

He rolled his eyes and looked up to the vent. Then back to me. I glanced quickly at the door slightly paranoid, but saw that Lance shot the control panel to the door. I slid my legs over, ignoring the stain they left on the table. I got off the table and almost collapsed on my knee. Lance caught me just in time before I hit the floor with a small cry. Pain blossomed from the wound, and I didn’t want to look down at it.

Lance took my arm, putting it around his neck as he activated his jetpack and flew us to the vent. With one hand I struggled to get through, but Lance helped. Once inside, Lance started to crawl one way, gesturing for me to follow. I gritted my teeth  _ hard _ as I crawled through. Finding an awkward way to crawl that was less painful.

Lance to twist and turn, little scratch marks lead the way. Once in a more open area I saw my armor and bayard. As quick as I could I slipped it on, carefully putting it on around my knees. Lance watched with an odd expression, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. All I had to focus on was not to get him captured and to make sure I was in fit enough shape to escape too.

Once that was done, Lance led us to a large opening that we were going to have to climb. Climb with one messed up leg. I never have hated Lance more then now.

“How far?” I asked. Looking up in horror at the long stretch.

He rubbed the back of his head, “I made a mark about half way up towards the vent we need to go through. They have some ships there that we can escape on.”

I nodded, getting ready for the climb.

“Keith,” Lance said, “I don’t think they’ll hear your jetpack, so you can do it like that.”

Oh. That sounds  _ so _ much better instead. Lance started first, finding the place that we needed to go and I followed.

At first my jetpack worked perfectly fine, but of course half way through it started to fail me. It spudder for a second, giving just enough time to grab a ledge as it stopped. I gritted my teeth as I hanged there for a moment before it started again. This time it swung left away from Lance and one section below him. My legs hit the wall and I could help but a hiss through my lips.

I grabbed my ledge as my booster decided not to come on again.  _ Why did those creatures have to damage it? _ I wondered. Lance held his hand out.

“Can you reach it?” He asked.

I tried to reach out, but my fingers couldn’t touch, I brought my hand back as I started to slip. My breath caught in my throat as the motion happened. I breathed deeply, “Lance, I’m going to jump.”

“What?!” He asked, but I had already started the practice.

I studied my good foot on the wall, and kept one hand out, ready to launch towards Lance. The momentum would get me high enough towards him to reach his hand since the distance was small. Lance kept his hand out as I leaped from the wall and towards him. My hand grasped his as my body slammed into the wall. My knee hit and for a moment my vision went white, but I kept a grip on Lance’s arm.

Lance grunted as he pulled me up, and I helped by trying to climb the smooth walls. Once my chest was high enough Lance pulled back and we both safety were in the vent. He huffed as he raised his hand in a high five.

“Good job, we survived that.” He said as I awkwardly hit it.

“We aren’t home yet,” I pointed out.

Lance waved me off, “Give me at least this. One win at a time.”

“Then we better get a victory out of this.”

Lance rolled his eyes, “Please, we’ll be fine. Now come on, let’s make sure we can get a ship in time.”

-

“What do you mean?” I asked, the tiredness still heavy on my eyelids.

It had only felt like minutes when I was in the healing pod, with the coldness of it surrounding me like a cocoon. It was a nice rest, but then I was back. Hours later with my wound gone. But I don't feel like I was completely out of the woods yet. I was standing next to Coran, as Pidge’s and Hunk’s faces appeared large on the screen.

“It’s just like that!” Hunk insteised. “Blue’s all alone out here, hidden in the mountain. Or Lance just left and refuses to answer in the comms.”

Pidge frowned, looking at something at something besides the screen. “There’s an odd crater out here,” She said, drawing attention from us all. “It looks like whatever hit it was  _ big _ . I’m going to check it out.”

“I’ll come along too.” I said, speaking up. “Then we could search for Lance together.”

“Um, not to be rude,” Hunk started. “But are sure that’s a good idea, Shiro? You just woke up a couple of minutes ago, and your wound is-”

“-Completely healed.” I answered, but the other looked unconvinced.

“Shiro,” Allura called, “We aren't sure what this planet’s like and we can’t afford to have you injured again.”

“Allura’s right,” Pidge agreed. “Shiro, me and Hunk can handle this. Besides its Lance, how far could he get in three days?”

“That’s why I’m worried.” I answered.

This got everyone surprised, and it ended up being Coran to ask why.

“Number one, what do you mean?”

I glanced towards the planet, looking at the clouds that created swirls on the sky. To the vibrant colors that popped out in the black space that surrounded it.

“I mean,” I continued, “That Lance wouldn’t want to travel unless he had to. He would stay with Blue and her safety, so something lured him out. That might have been the creator. Bring Blue back, and then I come back with you to check on the other things.”

There was a silent pause in the room, Hunk nodded and mumbled about bringing Blue. Then they shut off the comms to the Castle. Coran started typing on the computer as the quietness enveloped the room.

I started to move towards the door to get to Black when Allura talked softly to me.

“You don’t think he's on that planet anymore, do you?”

I froze in place, not really answering her question. I didn't know, I had only guesses. But from the looks of it… 

“Our comms can communicate over a long distance.” I stated.

“...Yes, my father spent a lot of time on them. So that they would be able to speak over miles long and still have the quickness to talk like we are doing now.” She answered.

“I noticed that, and already Pidge and Hunk have flown over the area trying to reach him.” I responded.

“Shiro,” Allura questioned, “What are you getting at?”

I sighed, turning to her now. “Lance wouldn’t have made it far in three days that Pidge and Hunk couldn't reach to. He also left his functional Lion behind, which would have helped with travel. Among those facts, the Lion was also hidden.”

“Oh,  _ oh _ .”

She lowered her head, wrapping her arms around her. “I didn’t see it that way.”

Her voice was small this time, I had forgotten that she was actually younger than me. She acted so much like an adult… it was hard to see the child inside of her. The part of her that was frightened and unsure of herself like the rest of us. The wome-no, girl, that led us here. She was a strong leader, she would’ve made a great qreen. Even in this war we started… she attacked and played her part better than the rest of us. Raised and destined to be a Queen.

My stomach turned on the fact that the five of us had to make it though this for her destiny to happen.  _ Perhaps... she didn’t care about the team and she’s using you- _ No she cares. She’s bonded with us. She cares about Lance, no matter how much she hated his flirting, she was a friend. Why did it feel like I was fighting with my own mind now? Its-

“Shiro?” A voice asked in the midst of my thoughts.

I snapped my attention back to her. Allura’s white hair fell gentle around her face as her Altean marks near her bright eyes rose higher as she frowned. 

“Sorry, I-I’m a bit distracted.” I admitted. Thoughts flying at random.  _ I shouldn't be up yet-rest.  _ No. I refused. We needed to get our teammates back as soon as we could, and I wasn’t resting until we could.

She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it to bite her lip. With a small nod to me, she turned to Coran.

Without a second look, I left the bridge and headed towards Black.

  
  


“So um, are you sure Lance didn’t just go on a hike? Pidge and I could go look again!” Hunk said as we neared the crater. “His food was gone so he-”

“You tell us.” Pidge responded, as she did with most of Hunk's questions. Without even looking at him I knew he was anxious. We all were. 

Pidge continued, “Weren’t  _ you _ Lance’s best friend? Did he like hikes?”

“Well you were his friend too-” Hunk replied.

Pidge huffed, “Hunk, for the last time, we all agreed to check it out. Then to gather information on where the Blue Lion was. Perhaps he left a message. Do you remember any of this conversation we had a minute ago?”

There was a guilty silence before Hunk replied, “...I got lost in thought?”

“You fell asleep didn’t you?”

“I was tired!”

“I can’t believe you!?”

“I tried to restrain it-”

“Well not enough apparently-”

“-But it happened. I didn’t sleep much on the other planet-”

“Loser. I didn’t sleep a wink, this is a full two nighter-”

“-I need sleep! I-”

“ _ Guys! _ ” I said sternly. “This isn’t the time. Now just  _ shut up _ so we can find Lance and hopefully Keith.”

The anger had come so fast it felt like a lighting bolt. My hands clenched in rage as I felt like I could break someone's arms in my mood. But that would be a mercy. I cou-

Then it left, and there was a pool of guilt left in me. A shame at yelling at my teammates for such a small ordeal. The quiet comms echoed in my ears, and I couldn’t help but imagine what they looked like. I gritted my teeth and tried to find the words to apologize.

“Guys, look I’m-” I started, but then Hunk cut in.

“No, it’s okay.” Hunk’s voice was low, defeated in a sense. Saddened. “We need to find Lance, that should be a priority.”

I didn’t answer, the words died on my tongue as I tried to move on. Away from the scene. Trying to forget the anger that had invaluped me.  _ I never snap… so why now? _

In the view Black gave me was of the crater. It wasn’t far from the mountain. In fact, from the way it was shaped, whatever fell looked to have just passed the mountain itself.

I landed Black and didn’t wait for the others to investigate the area. I walked closer to the crater. It was put in deeply, and had piled some dirt up pretty high. 

I wondered what caused it. There couldn’t have been a way for it to have been an asteroid, as it would’ve crater a rounder crater. In fact the creator was hit more to one side, suggesting that it could’ve been a crashed ship. But from the area it looked to be gone. Which in itself didn’t make sense, as it wouldn’t have been able to fly after such a crash. And there was no metal piece left around either.

So back to square one again. I looked over the area again and again. But the crater told me nothing of which it’s contents had gone too.

“Shiro?” I heard Pidge call.

“Yeah?” I turned to her, walking over to where she crouched on the ground.

She pointed to where she was looking, blood was splattered across the ground. Crimson. I bent down, looking at it. The part where she was at looked only like a few drops, while the other two places looked like whatever had been there was drenched in the red… but-

My eyes widened at the sight. How could have I missed it? A beast was a few yards away, gray. On the ground in a lacks position.

I stood up suddenly, and walked cautiously towards it. From Pidge’s quick inhale on her lips, I could tell she saw it too. As I walked closer, I saw it was dead. Surrounded by a dried pool of blood. Its long teeth, I was glad this wasn’t alive, opened wide as its tongue lay on the ground,

Using my metal arm, I turned it over to its chest, which was marked up with two long cuts. A sword or something near its size. 

I backed away from it, looking at the ground again. Someone had a fight here, and it couldn’t have been Lance. Otherwise the Creature wouldn’t have cuts, but burns instead.

I looked at the ground again, Pidge was near me, most likely making the same conclusion I had.

I bent down to it, almost like the closer I got, the more I knew. The small splatters of blood couldn’t have been from the beast, it only had larger cuts. So...

“Can you scan it? See what DNA it has? It looks…”

She didn’t look me in the eye when she nodded, jogging back to her Lion to fetch something before returning shortly after. I remember the device, we had needed it once at one of the planets we had traveled too. Pidge had made it quickly up after, but I forgot almost about the device's existence from then.

A light green light lit up as Pidge lowered the device down, a piece of it broke out and extracted some of the blood from the ground. The device beeped loudly and Pidge sighed.

“It’ll take some minutes to process it, but then we can scan the bigger puddles.” She said, then muttered quietly under her breath.

“What?” I asked, voice on the brink of snapping again.

Her eyes flickered up to mine, but then averted themselves. 

She mumbled out softly, but made sure it was loud enough for me to hear this time, “Nothing.”

She stood farther away from me, distancing herself...

_Why isn’t she telling me_!- _Go gently,_ my mind hinted. _Anger isn’t always responded with submission._ _Information is better found out by coaxing it out._

“Pidge…” I put a hand on her shoulder, getting her attention. “I know that right everything feels chaotic, with half of our team gone… but we have to work together. We can’t afford to be at odds with each other.” 

It was the best apology I could say in the moment for my snappy behavior, but it wasn’t like she was being at her best either.

Pidge looked up to me with an odd expression, something trying to read in between my lines or my own emotions, like they were new. In fact I wasn’t feeling  _ normal _ , but I couldn’t stop now because of that. Pidge could tell, she would- _ She would want to take me back into the healing tube where I couldn't help- _ Anger surged through my mind but was doused quickly as Pidge only knotted her eyebrows together in worry.  _ Distracted her, from what she thinks. _

“If we can find Lance and Kieth again, we could have Voltron back together. Then finding your family will be  _ so _ much easier Pidge… so please, help me keep us all together and help me.”

Her worry was then directed elsewhere, and she bit her lip. Whispering a small “okay” under her breath before continuing a minute later.

“We… were all tense, I know. Hunks worried and Alura and Coron are sleep deprived and I feel like I can barely stand…” She inhaled shakely, “But Shiro, what will we do if-?”

“Pidge, nothing happened. They will be fine. We will find Keith and Lance. S-”

There was a small bip and Pidge winced. “My scan-it’s d-done.” Pidge blurted out, staring up at me with wide eyes. 

The device beeps again, louder. Pigde nearly jumped, but didn’t look at it. Holding it close to her chest.

“That was quick.” I remarked, but looked at Pidge as she read.

Pidge went pale. “Sh-shiro...” She swallowed visibly as I could see tears come to her eyes. “-the DNA c-co-collected it and-and it...  _ recognizes _ it.” She could barely get her voice above a whisper.

“Oh.” The words slipped past my lips as I realized what she was saying, what she was  _ implying _ to what stains lay at our feet.

I slowly took the tablet from Pidges hands, looking at it with a stare. I could hear Pidge's voice in the air, but couldn’t find the focus to understand what she said. I read the words over and over again. Not really comparing their meanings. 

Someone took the tablet away from my tightened fingers, and then in that moment the anger, the quick rage, was back. Surrounding my senses of what was around me. White in shock, but black in passion of my temper.

I was  _ pissed _ . And nothing seemed to have added up before, but now the dots connected themselves too fast. I felt a brief moment of clarity, the calm before the storm, to see Hunk arrive.

“Wha-what happened?” He asked.

I could feel my face darked in the hate I felt, and I never despised a sentence more for the truth it told as I said it. The realization that it might have been the last time I saw them.

“Keith and Lance were taken with the Red Lion by the Galra.”

-

“I’ve never hated your plan more then now. You might as well put me back in the cell.” I said, gazing out at the ships and the guards that surround the place.

Lance patted my back and got a glare back.

“Come on now!” He said cheerfully, “I’m sure you're just saying out of being delirious right now. Besides, I have a perfect plan for this!”

“I’m not deli-”

“Save it!” Lance whispered as he lunged out of the vent towards the boxes, having a grip on my arm to pull me along.

I hissed out when I crouched down by the crates, trying not to scream at the pain in my leg. Which now at this point was going numb, and that wasn’t a good sign I knew.

Miraculously, no one had seen our little sprint, and Lance led the way to the closest ship. One sentry walked passed, and we both held our breath. It stopped for a moment, looking down the way we came, but didn’t look down at us. It walked away.

Simultaneously, we let out a breath of relief before we continued forwards. I made a small note on how much supplied this ship carried… and I started to wonder why, and what was it carrying.

But I could bother myself with those questions, I needed to stay focused and that was becoming harder to do. My mind was starting to notice little things now, the sore in my voice from screaming and how it cracked as I spoke. The small sound of me and Lance moving towards the ship as we navigate the boxes. The sound of increasing footsteps of sentries nearby. The shake starting in my arms-

_ The sound of the sentries was too loud. _ My mind noted, and I didn’t realize I stopped moving until Lance tapped my shoulder.

“Keith?” He asked, concerned written all over his face.

He always played his emotions up front, it was easier for him. Why was he encouraged with that but I wa- _ Focus.  _

I crawled around Lance and glanced carefully out towards the larger space. A guard was leading a group of sentries, no doubt to look over the area. He was pointing to areas, sending soldiers to the corners and barking some order. 

He glanced over to the corner where me and Lance were sitting, I ducked out the way and bonked into Lance. 

“Ow-!”

“Shh-!” I shushed him, I could feel my heart racing again. “There are more sentries now, and they're going to patrol the area. We have to move,  _ now. _ ”

I could barely feel the pain in my leg anymore, and the familiar adrenaline I had been feeling in the last few months ran its course in my veins. I felt my hearing sharpen, and I grabbed my bayard.

Lance looked at me shocked, but wasn’t really ‘looking’ at me. His eyes were fixed on something, but I didn’t have much time to dwinal on unnecessary facts. 

“Keit-your-but, uh-budd-”

I heard the sound of the metal footsteps and when they paused I wasted no more time to grab Lances wrist and run.

There were loud shouts behind us and there was blaster fire all around. Light purpose filled the room, and a shot  _ blaz _ right by my ear. But it wasn’t enough. 

The ships had their dockings down, so all me and Lance had to do was run into it. After that it was slightly more luck. I jumped into the flight seat as Lance hovered behind. I could feel the hesitation between us both as we looked at the Glara lettering before us.

Then Lance desired that the best choice was to just hit a random button. Then that only made it worse. A red light flickered across the screen with a countdown.

“What did you do?!” I yelled in panic.

I started hitting buttons, trying to turn it off as Lance did the same. “I don’t know!” He screamed back.

Nothing helped, at one button, the bottom of the ship came up and was ready to be piloted, if the ship didn’t explode, that is. The soldiers outside started firing, but then at Lance’s ‘great idea to push a random button’ fled the area.  _ Yup, were gonna explode. _

The worst was that since neither of us could read Glara, we couldn’t have known how long the timer went, so in twenty seconds it finally happened. 

The ship turned on it’s red lighting and fired a missile to the far off wall. Blasting it to pieces, showing the space behind it as immitally the loose crates were vacuumed into space. I was yanked forwards with Lance as we spiraled into space. 

I grunted, trying to gain control of the ship’s controls. The ships were oddly made, but the tech at heart was the same. I pulled down on the controls and gained balance on the ship.

Once the spinning stopped in my head, I looked around at how far we got away from the ship. Lance groaned from the floor where he’d fallen, but I was too busy trying to tell how far away we were from the ship.

Luck was on our side it seemed today, the pull launched us a great deal away, and what was better was that there was a planet that looked close. In fact it seemed to be a few inches away from my fingertips, if only space could work like that. But at that distance… it could likely only take a few hours before we could land. Sooner if this ship was faster than earth’s ones.

I didn’t want to think about the fact that the planet me and Lance had been on wasn’t the one I was looking upon. Or that it wasn’t even in sight. I tried not to think about the other reason that we had no food or supplies now. The only thought in my mind was  _ freedom. _

_ Gone from the room. _ And with a small smile on my lips,  _ back to the team. _

I ran a hand through my hair to run my hand over my ears and stop cold, freezing at the touch. Only sliding a finger down the longer ears that felt like a cat’s.

“So…” I heard the voice behind me start as I whipped around to them, “You have an explanation for those-or am just going to guess that this is a dream and I'm dying.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of Day Three
> 
> Shiro's feeling snappy, don't blame the dude. If I was hurt with an alien wound and then my friends were missing for no reason, I would be snappy too...but come on Shiro! Yelling at precious Hunk??? Not cool mate. Welp, hopefull Lance and Keith along for a bit... I mean what could go wrong??? XD
> 
> -Brooke


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Another update?! Nani?!?!? Yes, it is true. The cringe has return...  
> And pain :D
> 
> (More descriptive in this chapter about some wounds, you have been warned.)

I landed the ship in the clearing of the rocky terrain. I would’ve flown longer, in a more secure place, but the twin suns were setting lower and I didn’t want to guess how much more fuel was needed for this ship. 

After a minute or two in the air, I had gotten the hand of the spacecraft. I would’ve wanted to be proud of the victory, heck I was, but I was too tired to even boast about it. The previous escape had taken a lot out of me, not to mention a knee that was going numb and a new headache.

I pressed the button that had started the space craft and hoped it would turn off the engines. My hope proved right and the ship gave a small jolt as it settled on the ground. Without a glance at Lance, I headed for the doors. It opened to the landscape and I glanced over the area.

“We should set up camp.” I stated.

Lance nodded, and went back into the ship for a second as I waited for him. I didn’t try to act like his sudden silences had affected me. Honestly, if his silences had been caused by anything else,  _ anything _ , then our last conversation was… I either wouldn’t have noticed or cared. And I hated myself for that.

I didn’t normally care that much for what people said about me. After being at a young age and jumping from house to house, hearing rummers from other adults about myself… I got used to it. I stopped trying to care about what others thought. Weather if I cared about something passionately, or if I didn’t try at all. It became easier that way, a shield for myself from getting more hurt then I was already.

Then Shiro came. The first person to believe in-to  _ encourage _ me. It was nice, nice to not feel like I had to pretend that his words didn’t mean anything to me. After we became friends, it was really only his words that seemed to matter. Only his approval, not Iverson’s.

Then I slowly began to learn more and become friends with Shiro’s own friends. Matt was my second friend. I only knew him for a year before the mission… and never saw him since. I didn’t ever tell Pidge that I was friends with her brother. She knew we had met a couple of times, but nothing beyond that. I knew Matt had friends all over the place, he was like that. But in the one year we had known each other… it was a real friendship to me. 

When Shiro was gone, or had to work later, it was Matt who’d hang out with me. The one to joke with me about the latest thing or meme. We laughed and smiled together. With Shiro, it felt more like a special event. Sometimes they’d get on the topic of work and I would zone out, but without that it was one of my best times...I never told Pidge how much I missed Matt too. I don’t think she’d realized how much I cared about him too. There were few people in this universe I would ever call friends… and I was glad to call him that along with everyone else on the team. I didn’t want to lose that.

So when Lance came back down, a bag slung over his shoulder with our rations in it, I tried not to mind the silences. I tried to go back to how I remember, tried to prove that I wasn’t affected at all. That I too wasn’t constantly thinking or worried about my now revealed heritage. That it didn’t change how I view myself…

_ You can never lie to yourself. You’ll always know you're a liar at heart. _

Shut up. I shook my head and focused on getting sticks that were scattered around. I limped, gritting my teeth hard, trying to forget the pain in my knee. Once I found enough I laid them in a pile and started making a fire as quickly as I could before the light of the day was gone.

After feeling like I rubbed my hands dry, white smoke flew up as I was awarded the wonderful small flame. I sat back as Lance maneuvered the rations over the fire. After they were done, we ate in the quietness of the night. There were some odd noises of alien creatures and animals, but I was too tired to care.

My head was calming down to a light headache and my leg was becoming numb. I sighed, I just wished the day would end, I wished it was all a dream and would wake up in the Castle of Lions instead. Pertaining that none of this happened. Not the crash, not the Galra, not the torture or the ch-change… I wish it was some made up fantasy… but I was never so lucky. I never had a good streak with luck.

I put my empty bag of rations away, I had actually managed to eat all of it since it seemed that in the Galra cells they forgot about food. I stopped for a moment.  _ How… How long has it been? How long since Lance and I were just out on Red? How long had I- _

“Lance,” I asked suddenly, “How long were you on the ship?”

He was silent for a few minutes, I was about to ask again, determined to find an answer, but he replied. 

“I think… I don’t know. It took a couple of hours to get on the ship, then to find you and create a plan… I would assume nearly a day? Something around that…”

I nodded, grateful for the information. Lance didn’t say anything else and watched the fire.

I glanced at my hands… in the light they looked normal-but I could feel something off. The light wasn’t the best, not like Red’s light or the sun’s. But my skin looked-I stuttered, looking away. Not wanting to imagine, or guess. I needed sleep, it would help after sleep. 

I stood up with a hiss of pain, and clenched my eyes closed as my hand went to my knee. The numbness had suddenly disappeared as it let my mind fully aware of its pain. I swayed on my feet as the pain ached and burned with my weight on it. I leaned heavily on my other knee, too much in the daze of pain to notice my surroundings. A hand pushed my arm over my shoulder as I was gently pushed down. I sat without a reply as my leg eased of its agony it gave me. 

Then I became aware of Lance in front of me with an odd shaped box. He opened it and his tense shoulders slumped in relief.

“It was a medical box.” He muttered as he rummaged through it.

I watched him, aware but made no move. Only understanding what he was doing once he removed my armor from my leg. I glanced at the white and red shins in a pile as Lance rolled up the black tight pants.

I flinched at a certain height he got, only a few inches from my heel, and gritted my teeth. He paused for a moment, I could feel his eyes on me, but he started again to reveal the wound. I didn’t have to look at it to understand what it was. I  _ felt _ it enough. Only a view of it would drag me down more. One look at Lance’s face, how it scrunched up and he held a hand to his mouth like he was going to throw up, was enough information for me to know. 

Lance got over his unease and started working. His hand graced over everything in the box as he pulled out a few items. I looked towards the forest as he set stuff down and put others back. I tried not to remember the purple room with a similar set up. Once he seemed satisfied, he handed me something.

I gave him a questioning look at the stick he held up in front of me.

“To bite on while I..uh, seal up the wound.”

Oh…  _ oh _ . Darn it. I felt sicker now. My image of my leg just increased with pain and I had to contrate on the fire instead. Trying to watch the flames to calm me. I took the stick, lifting up to my mouth before stopping a moment.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

Lance grimaced, holding something in his hand that I didn’t recognize.

“I would rather know what you're doing to my leg.” I pressed.

Lanced nodded, and took a bottle of water and ran it down my leg to apparently wash off the dried blood. I couldn’t see it, but feeling the water rush over the wound gave me an idea of where it all was. I tensed, willing myself not to yell because of the water running on it.

“I’m… I’m going to have to seal up the wound.” He said, gripping the tool in his hand tightly as his face paled.

“Oh, god.” I whisper, looking up to the sky.

That means it was big, it wasn’t just in one place. It also meant that it was wide and stretched. I put the stick in my mouth as I looked up at the sky.

“Are-are you ready?” Lance asked, his voice duller in emotion, pity.

I closed my eyes, stomach already sick as I felt like I might throw up.  _ Ready as I could ever be _ . I nodded.

There was a buzz and something hot was near my leg. It felt like a fire, and Lance took a shaky breath before he pushed it into my skin. Then it was a blinding pain and I couldn’t even remember how to think.

I bit down on the wood, but it didn’t stop the scream. It was loud, maybe not as loud for someone else nearby with the wood disorienting the sound wave from my lungs. But it didn’t matter. My ears ring as my leg  _ burned. _ I wanted to move, I tried to move out of habit, but something grabbed my leg and held me down. I shrivelled on the ground, as my already horst voice turned into dying screams as my voice almost gave out. But them, after what felt like hours, hopeful only minutes, the pain stopped. 

I slumped from where I was sitting, breathing hard. Once my mind caught up, I looked to Lance in the corner of the fire light, bending over himself. After hearing him throw up his dinner I looked away, trying to sit up again. My body was shaking now, deprived of sleep and with the pain, it was almost done. Ready to collapse at any moment.

After Lance had… finished. He walked over, wiping his mouth as he knelt down next to me. He pulled out some bandages and set them by my leg. He leaned on the water bottle and handed it to me.

I took it without another word, thirsty beyond belief. I chugged it down, and there was some left, pulling at the bottom of the bottle. I paused, seeing my reflection in it. Starting at myself.

My ears were back, and now I saw the full size of them. They weren’t as big as I first imagined, but larger than I ever wanted. They were about the size of my palm or slightly bigger, like with light purple fur. I couldn’t see much with the water, it ripples at the tiniest of movement, but I longed to know and understand what I was… what happened.

“Your eyes are the same.”

I snapped my head up, “Wha-oh, oh… “

I was thankful for that at least, I wouldn’t be able to look at myself if they had too turned into the endless yellow of the Galra’s.

“What… what is different?” I asked with a voice. Crackly as it was, it still sounded childish. Lance could tell more than me. He hadn’t said much either after I had told him about being half Galra. 

He glanced up at me, looking at my face and seemed to be taking notes. He looked down again and started bangaging my leg.

“Your eyes might have some slight yellow in them, nothing too noticable, or it could be the fire light… When the sun was up it looked like you had, or had some light purple in your skin. It's darker on your cheeks. I… well your ears are… weird.”

He stopped a moment as he gestured to his own, “I only saw it once, but they like… expand off of your own and become furry? It happens in seconds and looks like something out of a superhero show. They look like cute cat ears… but it's too weird to see on you. But on a girl-”

I lightly kicked Lance with my normal foot.

“-ow! Hey!” He yelled.

I shrugged, answering bluntly, “Payback.”

He didn’t reply to that, and instead looked down again at his work. We stayed in silence again, he finished up, not too bad but I would have to bandage up the ends later, and we sat together. Watching the fire.

It flickered in the breeze, alive with light. It almost appeared to be dancing if I let my thoughts drift that far. It was calming. The fire warmed my face, and I closed my eyes for a few minutes. Pretending to hear old voices, memories that I once had to take me back into better times. My leg still ached, but somehow just with the small warmth made it all the more better.

“It's...I don’t think of you differently Keith.” Lance mumeried.

My dark purple eyes flickered to his ocean blue ones. He wrapped his arms around his knees and gazed into the fire as he continued.

“I-I know this all has to be rough for you…” He sighed, running a hand through his hair as I watched him quietly. “I… I  _ know _ your Keith. The same stupid, reckless, perfect pilot, Keith… but… You're the same, but you're also not.”

He looked at me, pausing to see if I would make any comment, but I didn’t. My ears downward. Too odd of a sensation for me. “You’ve changed… and I’m trying to see you the same way as before… and in my mind I know you're the same Keith. I’m just trying to process it all, you know?”

My mouth stayed in a firm line, not willing to say anything. I was too fearful that I’d ruin the peace, as if there was any. It was still, not many words spoken, but too many thoughts. But it was still, and calm... there was always a calm before the storm.

I looked away, my hands cupping the water bottle. I stared at my reflection. “I swear I-I didn’t know.”

My voice felt like a child's. Scare of the monster under the bed… but I was the monster wasn’t I? The cruel race that had killed thousands and caused so much pain and regret to others…

“I know.” Lance whispered back.

He stood up suddenly and vanished into the ship. For a moment I wanted to stand up and follow him, but my leg kept me down. He came back with some blankets and set one besides me and another a few feet away. 

Guessing their intent, I settled myself into a better position as I got the blanket over my leg. But before I could get far, Lance sat next to me again, fidgeting with something.

“I-uh, well I thought you’d want this back.” He handed something to me in the dying lights of the fire.

I took it and once the familiar weight was in my hand I didn’t need the light to know what it was. I felt myself smile as I took it and almost cradled it in my hands. I thought I had lost it, but now it was back. My grip tightened around, promising never to lose it again. Not something still so precious to me.

Lance cleared his throat as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, “Well, uh, I can leave you alone with your knife if you want. I don’t want to get in the way of your love.”

I rolled my eyes and laid down, facing the opposite direction from Lance. “Goodnight.” I said.

Lance was silent again, and I heard the shifting of him going to bed behind me. I let my body rest, wanting nothing more but to get lost in the wonders of sleep. It sounded nice. Nice for a short time, to forget everything. To pretend that today was far in the past and all I needed to know was rest.

But sleep didn’t come right away. Something kept me awake. And after an hour of laying in the darkness, I spoke softly.

“Thank you…” It wasn’t long, or overdone as Lance’s would’ve been. But short. More meaning behind the words than the letters themselves.

Lance didn’t respond, hopefully in the deep slumbers of sleep so he couldn’t bring it up  _ ever _ . But after I said those words, something in me found peace for a short while. To find a rest in just a small acknowledgement of being grateful to someone who was always the annoying one.

To thank him. For coming back, for helping, for being honest. For… for a few minutes of being someone that I could depend on.

For being there.

-

I sat still, eyes gazing at the floor as my glass slipped farther off my nose.  _ I should’ve gone with Hunk. _ I thought, barely being able to handle the tension in the room. My hand hovered over my keyboard in front of me.

Memories came and went, all jumbled together in a mess of anxiety. Questions were everywhere, anything was possible.  _ Where were they? Did they escape, or were captured? Why did they leave Blue behind? Where were they headed? Were they in danger? Were they hiding? From what? What- _

I sighed, pushing up my glasses. It wasn’t like staring at my screen would do any help. I had already tried to locate their armor on the planet… but it was empty. Nothing popped up. It could be a bug… or it could mean that they weren’t here at all.

Any one of those could only point to another question,  _ then where are they? _

I had run through a constant amount of ideas for a better tracker… but then it would be limited to only a small reign. Then to get anything else we would have to travel across the universe to find them. 

I lifted my glasses up to rub my eyes.  _ When was the last time I slept? I wasn't in the space dump… what time was it even? _ It didn’t matter. Not really, sleep was for the weak. I had stayed up longer then now, I think… but I still found myself longing for it. To get away from it all.

Shiro shouted again, pulling me out of my thoughts. He and Allura had been arguing on what to do now for at least twenty minutes. Usually Shiro wouldn’t be this loud, but since the moment we all realized something had happened… Shiro didn’t calm down. In fact he seemed to only get worse.

I had to hope that we’d find them soon. Or Shiro would drive us all towards the edge like this… but I couldn’t blame him. Not really. I was paranoid at the thought of never finding them. Angry at my blank brain for coming up with nothing useful.

Allura yelled back, and Coran, who was in between the two, kept them apart. Stuttering something out.

I clenched my hands and stood up quickly, causing both Shiro and Allura to look at me.

“I’m going to the kitchen, tell me when you’ve made up your mind about what to do.” I said, in a frustrated tone.

I stormed out before I heard their response. Balling my fisted up as growled out.

_ Why couldn’t they get it together? Don’t they get that now more than ever we need to stick together? Lance and Keith are waiting for us in who-knows-where! They're waiting on us to help, but we can’t because some of us are fighting!  _

_ While they made be bleeding, they’re in there arguing to eachother about stupid stuff why I’m here  _ **_helpless!_ ** _ Helpless to help them, to find them. Helpless to know if they're okay. To be there for my fam-my friends. They could be dead and we may never find them.  _

_ We may never talk to them again! To be teased by Lance, goofball Lance who thinks he can flirt his way anywhere. Keith to poke at, Keith who is determined and never stops fighting-them. My team, my friends who I don’t know where they are. Lost in space without any clues to find them. _

_ While Katie sits here, helpless to know anything, after priding herself so long about being smart. The one who could help is clueless….lost. Lost without them and without hope now…. _

A tear dropped down my chin. Landing on the metal floor. I stopped walking, pressing in the sob that wanted to come out.  _ No, no I wouldn’t yield. There was hope for them. I would make sure there would be hope for them. I would find them, and if I stopped, it would be the day I died. _

I whipped my tears with my arm, putting motion into my steps as I moved forwards. I didn’t stop because of Dad and Matt. I moved forwards. And I would do that now too.

I gritted my teeth and barged into the kicken. Hunk was making something on the counter, but from the looks of it, he wasn’t as pleased with it as he wanted to be. When he heard the door open, he glanced up and smiled at me.

“Pidge!” Hunk greeted, but noticed my sour mood immitaley. “Are they still…?”

I nodded, sitting down next to him. “Of course, I mean why not? It’s not like we need to find anything anytime soon.”

Hunk winced at my sarcasm tone, and started to make something new.

I sighed, not wanting to talk about it more. I didn’t need to spend my time getting angry. Shiro and Allura were doing enough of that. 

So instead I asked, “What are you making?”

Hunk hummed, “You’ll see in a moment, but I was working on some cookies I thought would be nice.”

I looked at what to be “cookies”, but more looked like yellow and green burritos. “Not going too well?” I asked.

Hunk didn’t answer, nothing really wanting to talk about it. Then we sat in silence, which by itself was weird. But it didn’t seem like any topic at the font of our minds seemed like a nice conversation. So it was quiet in the room beside Hunk mixing together a baby blue colored drink.

After deming it good enough, he handed it to me.

“Drink up!” He said.

I looked down at it, I wasn’t a fan of any sports drinks, and nothing tea or soda related. Coffee was amazing, but that was about it. I would’ve pressed more on what it was, but Hunk gave an encouraging look and I didn’t want to doubt him. I drank it fast, and surprisingly it tasted like a smore in water.

I finished it in about two swings and set it down again.

“So,” I began, “What was that?-I mean it was good, but uh…”

“Oh! Well you looked tired so I thought it might help you.” He responded, going back to his failed cookies.

“So… like it was caffeine? To wake me up?” That is usually what I did when I was tired to finish some project, then crashed at some other random time when an assignment wasn’t due.

“Well...no, not really.” He admitted, not looking me in the eyes.

“...you mean this is going to put me to sleep?” I asked, getting worried now.  _ I couldn’t have this. I needed more time to work on- _

“Yes?”

“Hunk!” I yelled, a little betrayed.

“What? You need it!” He argued back. “Besides, right now you need sleep! Have you seen yourself?”

I waved it off. “I’m  _ fine _ , Hunk. I need to be awake. Now more than ever! I need to-!”

“Need to what, Pidge?” He questioned, abandoning his cookies once again. “You need rest now! We can’t have you getting sick on us!”

“But I need to help-”

“No, Pidge. Allura and Shiro will figure it ou-”

I scoffed, “At the point they are at? Yeah right.”

“Pidge! Trust them!”

“How can I when they can’t even focus on the  _ real _ priority!”

“Their just-”

“Just what? Too caught up in themselves they don’t understand what could be happening to their teammates?”

“No… that’s not what I meant.”

“Then what? Huh? Right now I need to work since they won’t!”

“It won’t help if you run yourself into the ground!”

“I can’t waste time, Hunk! I need every second to work-”

“You can’t do this to yourself!”

“ _ I need to find them! _ ” I shouted back, hands slammed down on the counter as I glared at Hunk.

His eyes widened in shock, and I had to look away from them. I muttered out softly, “I need to find them Hunk... I-I have to try to help. I can’t lose someone again.”

“Pidge...your no help sleep deprived. A couple hours won’t hurt.” Hunk said.

I shook my head.  _ Who knows what could happen to them then? _ “Hunk, they need us.”

“They’re strong, Pidge.” Hunk replied. “They’ll survive. If not for us, then to outdo each other.”

I couldn’t help but snicker at the thought, but my worries kept me down.  _ What if they aren’t the ones in control right now? _

My eyes felt heavy now, exhaustion taking its turn. Hunk put a hand on my shoulder, and I looked up to his large frame.

“Rest, Pidge, I promise if I get news or the group makes any plans I’ll wake you. But for now… please rest.”

“You’ll wake me? Me even at the slightest information, okay?”

Hunk sign with a fawn smile, “Yes, pidge, I will. Now rest.”

I sighed, looking at the comfortable table counter, and laid my head down.

-

His screams echoed in my head. Ones from the Galran ship and the ones at the campfire… I couldn’t get them out.

I put my hands over my ears, trying to go to sleep. But it didn’t work. They echoed around my thoughts, never leaving me be. Only reminding me of what I had done.

I had left him before-almost losing him then- when he was in pain, and I  _ left _ . Would it have been harder to leave him if it had been Hunk or Pidge? What if it had been Allura strapped to that table-screaming for no one to come in help. A desperate cry that went unheard by a friend's ears… my ears. I heard him… but I left.

_ But you came back- _

The thought was almost drowned out by the others. But it stopped me for a moment before my mind was back at it.  _ But what for? What did I recuse Keith for? To die on an alien planet or to put him through more pain by my own hand? _

I shuddered at the memory. Just the sight of him flinching out of my hands grasp as I tried sealing his wound… his leg… it was a mess. It was practically purple with the bruises and the red blood was clotting in areas where it couldn’t escape the tight fabric. The wound that was affecting Keith the most looks like it… it looked as if someone drilled the metal into his skin and started dragging it down his leg… I willed myself not to puke again at the thought-at the pure  _ image _ of it. Sticky raw blood that dropped down the wound, and it wasn’t a clean cut, because that would’ve been too easy. No, it looked torn at the edges and it was almost  _ five inches long- _

I curled myself up again. Trying to think of anything else. I could barely hear the crackle of the fire over my thoughts-the horrid image.  _ At least… _ I thought. _ At least I helped him a bit… he may never forgive me for it…  _ My mind jumped to the simple phrase “Payback”. He had said it in a light tone… but it didn't stop me from letting my heart stop and suck in my breath quicker then normal. 

I rolled over, looking up at the stars. I gazed up at them, trying to find consultations. I knew I wouldn’t find any that I could find on earth… but it was at least a desterication. A good one.

I smiled at memery. Pushing the loud thoughts away to relive something better.  _ Benita shook my arms until I was awake again. _

_ “Wake up!” She shouted in my ears. _

_ I jolted awake, rubbing my ear as I gave a small glare in her direction, “Ouch! Why’d you do that?” _

_ But Benita only grinned wider and popped next to me on the roof. _

_ “You shouldn’t be up here,” I insteited, “Mama’s going to have a fit.” _

_ She shook her head and let her toothy grin widen. “Na-uh! I saw you up here first! Mama doesn’t like you up here either!” _

_ I rolled my eyes but played along with a sigh, “Fine, Benita. You caught me.” _

_ I held out my wrist to her and let my shoulder slump, in a sign of surrender. She laughed, higher pitch. One of those laughs you could never forget, and always wanted to hear. It was like music to my ears. _

_ I leaned back against the roof, arms crossed beneath me like a make-shifted pillow. I gazed out at the stars. They were always a beautiful sight to see. Stretching endlessly into the navy sky above. Only giving me a glimpse of what was out there. Some part of me longed to search and explore that area. To reach out and be with those stars. Flying between them like some Peter-Pan. To see the wonders of the universe one had yet to find. _

_ But I was still here. Barely making it through school with little care about it. It’s not like I had a chance to be among them. Not yet at least… _

_ “What are you thinking about?” Benita asked in a wonder. _

_ I let a smile slip on my lips as I looked over to her, “Just about how a young lady should be heading to bed sometime.” _

_ She glared at me and with a huff folded her arms. “It’s not  _ that _ late!” _

_ I playful poked her in the ribs, “I bet Mama would have a different answer.” _

_ “You wouldn’t tell her!” _

_ “So you admit you snuck out of your room?” I responded, and she glanced away. _

_ She mumbled something, but I couldn’t hear what. “Be-” _

_ “I want to see what you were doing up here.” She said, now looking at me. “You always go up here even when mama says not to!” _

_ I chuckled, “Lets keep that between us?” _

_ Something mischievous sparked in her eyes. “Only… if you promise not to say anything to mama about my bedtime and let me stay up here with you.” _

_ I smirk, “Little sis, you drive a hard bargain.” _

_ “I’m not little! I’m  _ almost _ ten!” _

_ I rolled my eyes. “Fine… but you have to be quiet!” _

_ She smiled eagerly and layed down next to me. _

_ “What are you looking for?” She asked. _

_ I groaned, I was already regretting my decision. _

_ I looked up to the moon. Only a small fraction of shadow lay on it. Two days from now and it would be the full moon. I frown slightly, what  _ was _ I looking for? I only came up here to clear my thoughts. To think about the days events or decisions to come. _

_ I had come up more recently just because of highschool soon coming to a close. One more year left… I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to do yet. _

_ “I think… I don’t know. The sky had always seemed peaceful to me. It’s always nice to remember everyone on earth shares the same sky. No matter where, we share the sky.” _

_ “So when you're away, you'll see the sky and think of us?” Benita asked, “That’s what the movies said.” _

_ I rolled my eyes, “Sure, Benita. When you miss me, just look up at the stars and know I look up at them too, and you'll think of me.” _

_ She smiled at me, and I at her. But then they faded as a loud booming voice shouted out, below. _

_ “BENITA! LANCE!” _

_ “Oh, mama going to be mad…” I muttered and we scurried off the roof as possible. _

That was one of the most memorable memories I had on that roof. Now I was below different constellations, under a different sky.

Somehow I was saddened at the thought of my words fading. At an image of a lonely Benita looking up at the sky and thinking I saw it too. When really I was light years away…

_ But doesn’t everyone share the same sky?  _ I didn’t know. And it was almost worse to think about family then Keith. But… the sky, the stars… they calmed me down. And my memory turned into a little hope of coming back to Benita. Back home once this war was over.  _ Everything would work out, it had too.  _

And with that… I fell asleep.

-

I frown at the cookies before me. They didn’t even out like I had hoped, and instead seemed to bond together to form a ball. I had tried to test it, but it was harder than a jaw-breaker. And instead threw them out.

Another failed batch along with the other five I had done in the last couple hours. I rubbed my forehead. Sighing loudly in annoyance. Pidge was still slumped over the corner in her Paladian uniform. I was grateful for her silent company, but lately… I wanted to hear another voice. To talk to someone else. But… Pidge needed her rest and I wasn’t going to make her more miserable to make sure I didn’t feel lonely.

No, Hunk could deal with a little loneliness. Especially if it had to do with the health of good friends.

I glanced back at my other failed attempts at cookies. Was it really worth it to keep them? Cooking was always natural to me… so why was it so hard now?

I shook my head, I didn’t want to think about that. It wasn’t the time. I just wanted to move my hands and let go of my thoughts. I need to… accept some things before I let myself get ahead. To let myself panic.

Nasua was already near with my panic. It always was. I was never really good with car rides or flying… the Yellow Lion was different, her flights were bumpless and free. I felt more like a bird than any pilot… but even with that, anxiety always made me nauseous. As my thoughts continued on my stomach who was in an up-roar.

I didn’t try my other cookies. Even by looks I didn’t want to test my stomach. I did have a record going on for my last… incident. Lance had never forgiven me for that. Heh, I won-

My smile faded as I pulled more ingredients out.  _ Don’t think. Don’t think about them. Just don’t. They're fine. Just cook. _

I pulled out the ingredients and started setting up again. Then the kitchen door flew open. Shiro stood in the doorway, looking towards me, then to Pidge.

“Shiro!” I greeted, abandoning my cooking. “Have you and Allura decided anything yet?” I tried keeping it in a friendly tone, to not have hime snap at me again.

Shiro nodded, and hesitated before he answered. I should’ve known something was up in the slit second.

“...We’re going to attack the planet’s central city in two hours.”

“ _ What?!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day four begins  
> Pidge is having a rough time, good thing mamma Hunk is here too help! (Hunk you are too precious to be in this series, I am sorry.) The team is having some tension issues, but you know... :) Also, Lance's sister! She's cute and I might have to do some other scenes with this cutie^V^ (Older brother Lance is cute, you cannot change my mind) And the Angst has return for Keith as so the whump for Lance! They can never escape... well hoped you like my cringe of a chapter!  
> -Brooke


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Sits in corner of shame* Um, h-hello! It's been...awhile. I can only say now that you can’t trust me at all about when this thing updates. Like never. So I guess this thing is now that story that updates whenever! Maybe after three days or three months!(I really am sorry about that, it's more when I write when I have time and feel inspired to do so. And recently, both of those reasons have been flushed out the drain with my schedule.) So, um, I think that's about it when it comes to the notice??? Idk, enjoy my crappy pacing, terrible grammar, spelling, and everything that involves this story being the worst! I am sorry...

The twin suns were bright in my eyes, and it was  _ only  _ dawn! I grumbled and put an arm over my helmet-less head. Trying to fall back asleep, but apparently I couldn’t even be given that! I muttered, sitting up and looked over at where Keith went to sleep to see him… playing with sticks. The simple confusion woke me up.

I rubbed my eyes and with a yawn I asked,“What are you doing?” 

I watched him. Him bending over his bad leg to mess with the sticks and bandages around it. After I spoke he looked up quickly, snapping his attention away from the branches to me. A smirk flew on his lips as he looked at me, snickering.

I raised an eyebrow at him. Sighing as I rubbed my tired eyes again, “Yes, yes, I know I’m not in the best shape. I had to leave my beauty products in Blue so I don’t want to hear a word!-and you're not in the best shape either. Whi-”

I shirked. Unmanly, high pitch, little girl, scream. I had gone to brush back my hair, when I hit slime and pulled my hand back to see a mix between a snake and a very large snail creature. I flicked it away and scrambled up. Brushing out all of the yellow slime and angrily grabbed one of the water bottles and dosed my hair. Getting rid of the slime completely. The chunks fell out, but I felt unnerved and would pay a million dollars just then to get a shower. No, scratch that, a  _ bath _ .

All while I had the scare of my life, Keith was laughing his butt off where he was sitting. Muttering curses in spanish under my breath, I sat next to him again with an annoyed huff and watched the creature crawl away.

I glared at Keith and spat out, “Thanks for helping by the way.”

He smirked, looking at his work and said, “No problem. Looked like you were enjoying his slimy ‘good morning’.”

I tried to resist the urge to barf and shivered instead. “Thanks again, man. Would totally do the same for you.” I replied snarky.

Keith rolled his eyes, smirk gone now. He resumed his task at hand and started working with the branches again. His hands moved quickly and stead as he placed different parts around. I glanced at him again, noticing the lack of ears… it was weird to even think about Keith having cat-like ears and having to notice them… I shook the thought away. I didn’t want to think about that. Nor the memory of what I had to do the night before… no. Never thinking of  _ that _ again.

I looked up at the sky. It was later then I thought. The twin suns were up in the sky and it appeared to be around nine or eleven. There weren’t many clouds in the sky, and the blue color was beautiful to me. Reminding me of the ocean blue sea on earth. In the distance I could-

In the distance I could see the Galra spaceship in the sky.

“Keith.” I called out, already reaching out to grab his arm. “We need to go-”

“It’s fine.”

“-No-what?” I asked bewildered. Eyes going wide as I stared at Mullet like he had grown another on his head.

He shrugged, “There far off, the size of the ship makes it appear to be closer, but it's not. I saw it s’moring too, but we should be fine. The ship is small, so when we do leave it’ll be stealthy. In a bit we can go, but not now.”

I waited a moment, but he didn’t explain any further. “So you saw the ship and didn’t tell me?”

“Technically, I tried too but you're a hard sleeper.” He didn’t sound convincing what-so-ever.

“You didn’t even try did you?”

“Nope.” He said, popping the ‘p’, and acting like he didn’t have a care in the world.

I almost instead said that we’d leave now-that we needed to hide… but then I remembered it was Keith who’d been in the hands of the Galra and if it was anyone who’d want to get away furthest from them… it would be him. So I sat down again and tried to relax more. Trying to put a little faith into his words… but I wasn’t so convinced by them.

“So what  _ are _ you doing?” I asked.

Keith sighed, setting down the branches as he looked at me with some disappointment. In a sarcastic tone, “Well I can’t seem to walk well right now so I thought I’d help myself.”

I frown, looking at the branches near his leg. “So… you're making a cane?”

Keith groaned, running a hand through his mullet. In a mocking tone he replied,“Yes, that’s excitedly what I’m doing, Lance.”

I inwardly glared at Keith.  _ I just woke up, give me a break. Sheesh, don’t act like what you're doing is the easiest thing to guess. You're surrounded by a bunch of sticks! How am I supposed to, to- _

Keith, stopping my inner rant, said each word slowly like he would a child. I never felt so insulted. “I, am, making, a, leg-brace.”

Ooooh, that did make more sense now. But regardless of the answer I felt anger spike within me. First the slug-snake thingy and now being treated like a child! My mood was plummeting down like an asteroid. Maybe if Keith had been Hunk, I would’ve felt more forgiving. But this was Keith.

“Thanks a lot smart guy,” I replied. “Well since you’ve chosen such a way to use sticks, I’m going to get some more.”

Kieth rolled his eyes again, muttering under his breath. “Well at least I’m not the idiot in our group and try to use our resources.”

I turned around, and self-control now broken, and my temper lashed out. Snapping, I barked back. “If you want to insult me do it to my face! Hasn’t stopped you before, mullet!”

“Oh, I thought you already knew.” Keith replied calm, barely even glancing up at me. 

I gritted my teeth. Not letting the words hurt. I knew-I knew some it was true. But it wasn’t right now that I was going to let Keith get the better of me.

“Really? Because the only idiot I see here is  _ you _ !”

Keith scoffed, looking away from me towards his project. “Yeah, right.”

“Well then who got themselves captured by the Galra-after you tried to  _ fight _ Zarkon?”

Keith flinched, almost growling out, “They snuck up on me!”

“Well maybe we wouldn’t have had to worry about that if your puny little  _ mind _ would’ve thought before trying to take on Zarkon!” I was yelling now at him, arms open wide. My words were coming rapped fire now and I barely thought about them before they spilled out of my mouth.

Keith’s Galra-like ears grew out in an instant, and I barely noted the detail. Too enraged and full of fury. A fury that had built up over the couple of days as it seemed bad thing happened after bad thing.

Keith whipped around towards me, a snarl on his lips. “Like it was an all-so  _ great _ idea to go directly to Zarkon’s fleet?”

“Are you saying we should’ve left Allura?!” I shouted. I was towering over Keith sitting form.

“Maybe I am!” He yelled back, eyes narrowing.

I laughed out bitterly, taking a step away from him. I was tempted to roll my eyes in the movement but didn’t take them off of Keith’s purple iris’. “Oh of course you’d be okay leaving someone behind. Especially when you aren’t close to them like Shiro.”

“That’s not what I meant!” He cried, almost in a desperate plea.

“Isn’t it?” I replied. “‘Keith Kogane doesn’t care about anybody!’ ‘He doesn’t even have emotions!’ Isn’t that what they all said?” I said, quotes from so many other students filled my head. “Saying ‘he’s-”

“I cared about everyone in the Castle!”

“Really?” I asked, letting a fake shocked expression on my face before I snarled at him. “Because you sure don’t show  _ it _ . After all it’s you who wanted to leave her,  _ wasn’t it _ ?”

A look of guilt passed through his face for a split second before the anger returned. A blink and I would’ve missed it. But at this point I didn’t care.

“It’s math, Lance.” He replied.

I chuckled darkly. “Its-it’s math?! A human life and-you’re comparing it to  _ math _ ?!”

Keith gritted his teeth and curled his hand into a fist, “One human life shouldn’t be worth more then others.”

I laughed again and let the derisive tone drip over my words like honey, “Oh, aren’t you the  _ equalist? _ ”

“Lance-”

A thought accrued to me, and I glance back down at Keith. “Does that mean you’d rather stay in your prison at the Galra fleet then be resuced? Or are you such a coward you just didn’t want to save a ‘friend’ in the first place?”

“I told you-”

I cut him off. “Answer me! Did. You. want. to. be. recused?”

He looked away, his cat like ears lowered. He clenched his fist tightly as he softly said, “I wouldn't want anyone to risk themselves if it meant the cost of more.”

I huffed, “Now you decide to become the saint? What a  _ lia _ r you are.”

He glared up, spitting out, “I’m not-Take your own option, Lance! You're not a saint either! No one is! I just don't want anyone else to fall with me if I go down!”

“‘If I go down’?” I quoted mockingly, “Yeah, you really brought yourself down. You can’t even thank someone who risked their neck out for you-instead you push them away!”

“You came after me!” He retorted pointing a finger.

I rolled my eyes. “And look where that got me? Maybe I should’ve let them take you. It’s not like you help the team that much anyways.”

“Yeah, it's not like I’m a great pilot who helps the team. Unlike some  _ else _ .”

Scoffing, I asked, “Oh, so your rash decisions help the team so much? I’m a better teammate than you anyday! And to add something else-” My words flowed together quickly, I was blinded by my wrath and ignorance. “-at least I’m not a  _ Galra like you! _ ”

Keith’s eyes widened as he froze. Face pulled into a shock as his ears bent so they looked almost a part of his hair. His mouth agape, almost a minute ago ready to pour out words of hurt. Pain was edged in his eyes before the look vanished and he looked stubbornly to the ground. Mouth planted in a firm line. Ears down still, but his face was emotionless. Trying to keep the emotions inside. Trying to act like it didn’t cut into the heart and pretend he was made of stone.

I bit my lip, hard. Not trusting my voice.  _ Nice going, Lance.  _ I staggered back a few steps. Cursing in my head. I had let my anger get the better of me, now it was too late. 

I closed my eyes. Of all the times I put my foot in my mouth, of when I needed a time machine most, it was now. I was halfway dependent on Keith for my own survival. So was he. Now if we are against each other it will only make it easier for the Galra to get us again. Too break us.

So against my judgement of everything else, at my divide choices between walking off and wanting to mend my mistake, I spoke. “Listen, Keith. I’m so-”

“Whatever.”

“Rr-what?” I asked, almost broke my balance from the sudden word.

He kept his head bent down. “You don’t mean it. You didn’t mean it last night either. Just go away. Get your sticks.”

“I’m-I’m trying to apologize! I-”

“ _ You don’t mean it so don’t lie to me!” _ He screamed, purple eyes locked onto mine as I saw them more glasses looking than before.

“Keith-” I tried to say, to reach out. I had meant it last night. Keith was the same annoying person with or without ears. With or without being Galra. 

“No. Just go. It’s not like you wanted to stay anyways.”

I snapped my jaw close with an audible  _ snap _ . “Fine.”

I turned around, marching into the forest section to gather more sticks. Mind in an uproar. Wondering how I could’ve messed up so badly.  _ I had always been a mess up, hadn’t I? _

-

“What do you mean?” I asked. My mood had gone from sour of being awakened from a nice nap to being full on confused about what was being said. At this moment I was tempted to snap and bring Hunk along with me to figure a plan ourselves.

“Pidge, listen-” Allura tried to say before I interrupted her.

“No, I get what we're ‘doing’, but you haven’t given  _ any _ context on  _ why _ ? We need to focus on getting our teammates back and you-” My voice broke, disbelieving their logic when there was such a more urgent matter at hand. “-you want to liberate a city? Do you not understand how much we need to find Keith and Lance?”

“Pidge,” Shiro called, finally saying something for the first time in the whole conversation. He wasn’t in the best mood, I could tell he didn’t want to do this either, but he… he didn’t say anything. He didn’t help me. That didn’t help me calm myself, only bring more annoyance to his words.

Shiro continued. “We need to get there for more information.”

“Wha-what we  _ need _ to do is get on trying to track Keith and Lance before it’s too late!”

“ _ It’s already  _ **_too_ ** _ late! _ ” Allura shouted above me. She leveled me with a glare, before sighing.

She continued,“The town is the only information source we have right now. With knowledge that it's been bombarded with the Galra, it only makes it a more pressing matter to liberate it. We have no idea where Lance and Keith could be, but we might gain an idea or get a lead with the city. Once we liberate it we can ask questions.”

I clenched my fist, and gritted my teeth. “So you're saying that if we don’t find anything there, then… then they're lost?” 

I hated how my voice sounded so  _ childish _ . The quiver in my confident tone, the hint of my fear... Abandonment. I shivered. I was scared of that. To see it happen to my teammates, to see it happen to my family.  _ Matt and Dad… _

I pushed the thought away, staring instead, at Allura’s unnatural bright blue eyes.

Her jaw tightened and she straightened her posture up, all in a determination. “We will find them. They  _ won’t _ be lost.”

I start at her, confident. The thing that made her one of our leaders besides Shiro. The leadership she displayed, not letting one of her paladins go.  _ How can she be so sure? How can she be so… how can she not fear for them? Why can’t I-Why can’t I be like that? _

I let my hand fall open. Shoulders slumped in a defeat. There wasn’t any lead I had, not a direction or a phrase. I had nothing. Perhaps… perhaps I needed to take the chance to find out more.

“Okay.” I said softly. I will follow. I will make sure we bring them back. I will make sure they won’t end up like Matt and Dad. I will. I promise.

Allura, a flicker of a smile on her lips as she looked at me. “Thank you, Pidge.”

I nodded, looking to Hunk. To see his decision.

Hunk bit his lip. Eyes crossing the room, looking from me, to Allura, to Shiro. Hunk was silent, unsure. He hadn’t spoken at all once I woke up. Only following.

“I…” He started, faltering. He closed his eyes for a brief second before turning to me. “I trust you all, if you think… if you believe we need to do this battle to find Lance and Keith then I will help.”

Shiro nodded, Allura thanked him quietly, and I looked at him. A quiet conversation between us. Hunk gave me a smile, supposedly to encourage me. I couldn’t return it, but I gave a nod. And understatement.

_ We all would do whatever was necessary to find our friends. _

“Paladins go to your lions.” Shiro said, then looking at Allura, “Dellay what you can from above. They don’t have a flat or cursor so your main priority is the ships. You have to cover us shortly when we head into the comm center.”

Allura nodded and we ran out. Grabbing our helmets and with a breaking speed we jumped into our lions. The hallways buried together as my mermized path lead me to Green.

The lime lights in the Green Lion were a warm welcome as I placed my hands on the controls. The familiar hum of a lion was in the back of my mind.

“Hello girl.” I whispered to her, “We’ll find the others. Together?”

I didn’t need to question, but I received a comforting roar as an answer. With a small confident smile I flew out of the hanger. Yellow at my side. Shiro's face appeared on my screen as I looked down at the planet.

“What’s the plan, Shiro?” Hunk asked.

“Once we get through the fray, when we need to head for the second tower-its rounded-it’s the communication’s tower. Coran did research and it seems this planet has hard times with radio wave frequencies. If we rid the Galra in the center then the rest of the group should fall apart.”

“Got it.” Hunk and I replied.

With a push of my wrist, Green shot forwards towards the planet. Black was in front of me, leading the way, while Yello stayed next me. Once we broke through the atmosphere, I saw something coming towards us,  _ fast _ .

“Incoming!” I shouted, pulling up harshly.

The small ship slipped by as twenty more showed up. The team-it wasn’t much of that now-split up. Flying in different directions. Focusing now, I followed three ships, blasting one with a well timed aim. Two pulled back, going in different directions. Picking the left one, I traced their movements as Green took a shot to the back. I grunted, bouncing forwards a bit, but dodged another shot. I flew straight a moment before twisting quickly to circle around the ship. It didn’t work that way. 

The ship flew up as I went down and five more started to follow. Dodging became harder and Green was getting beat up.

“Hunk I need some back-up here!” I yelled over the chaos of the battle.

I heard a grunt, “I’m getting pinned at the moment-give me a sec!” He called.

But before he could, I saw the ships explode or crash down into the trees that litter the planet, and Black siding next to me.

“Thanks!” I called to Shiro, diving downwards towards the city.

More came up, and in minutes I was mixed and constantly going from dodging and needing help to chasing other ships. Orange and green mixed in front me as the scenery constantly changed from explosion to the trees below us. Soon an opening arrived and both me and Shiro landed going into the communications center.

Dropping out of Green as I followed Shiro into the tower. Even armed with my bayard, I perfed to stay close to Shiro. He walked with his arm out, listing beyond the battle above us to the hallway.

“Pidge, do whatever you need to turn off the communications and I’ll cover you.”

I nodded and Shiro walked to the door and punched, with his metal arm, in the keylock. With the keylock in a burst of sparks, the door opened and about two dozen Galra looked up. They started a moment before rusting forwards. But they didn’t get far.

Shiro in one swing of his arm swiped five off their feet and they crashed into each other. And with a war cry Shiro plunged into the gauntlet.

I looked away in time to see one charge at me. With a quick turn of my wrist I side stepped and punched my arm forwards to hit the Galra with my Bayard. With a startled yell he fell to the floor. Without a second glance I leaped towards the controls and scanned for anything I knew.

With my helmet translating, I hooked myself into the computer. Hacking it with my favorite icon, even with everything going on, it brought a smile. Codes flash before me. My mind was going a mile a minute and I forgot what was happening around me. Lost into the simple coding of Computers. Of course it wasn't easy but there always seemed to be a solution. Nothing seemed… hopeless.

I shook my head.  _ Not the time to get lost in thought. Hurry up, Katie. _ My fingers felt slow with the translation, everything in an odd order. But to anyone else I was speeding.

A few clicks of a button and all communications were shut down. From the towers to the ships in the sky. The computer lights demanded as a virus leaked its way in. It brought a smirk to my lips at how easy it was. Well, give or take a few minutes.

“Did it!” I called out.

Only Hunk responded, “I'm coming down!”

“You're covered, Paladins.” Allura assured.

I glanced over to Shiro, to see how he was doing. But I stopped. The blood drained from my face.

He was in a mist of a pile. A pile of  _ Galra _ who weren’t  _ getting up _ . Shiro picked one of the cowering Galra up and slammed him into the wall. Another soldier-they hadn’t been armed and I knew that these hadn’t been soldiers- charged at Shiro before Shiro grabbed him. He was lifting one of Galra up. Galra cried out before he screamed. Shiro arm, ablaze with a blinding light, ran through the Galra’s body.

Slipping off Shiro’s arm he fell to the floor. Then Hunk was pulling Shiro away. I didn’t even realize he was there. Hunk pulled Shiro away, yelling something. He looked at me, almost dropping whatever he had been doing. He ran to me, asking something, but I was in shock.

I hadn’t-I hadn’t wanted… I don't know what to think. Then all of the sudden all I wanted was to be home. To pretend it wasn’t real at all. It hadn’t been the first time I wanted something like this.

I want to find Keith and Lance, but I didn’t know if I wanted it to be like this.  _ What if the Galra deserved it? _ I don’t know. And honestly, I didn’t know.

I let Hunk lead me out. And in the moment, my mind was divided on what to think. But one was for sure.  _ I would find Keith and Lance… but what did that take? _

-

Lance had come back. Snapping some sarcastic remarks when I said something, but otherwise kept to himself and folded his arms as he walked. Before this moring, I would’ve asked him if anything was wrong. If something was bothering him to keep his loud mouth shut… but now I was more grateful than anything else.

I didn’t want to hear him criticize me more… to find more reasons to hate me like so many others do…

“Is everything in the ship?” I asked, hobbling over carefully, my makeshift bracket for my leg wasn’t as tight as I would like. If I had an extra hand I could…

Lance scoffed, “Like we had a lot of stuff anyways.”

Taking this as a yes, I climbed into the ship, wincing everytime I stumbled or had to lean on the wall for support. I hated how little the distance was, but how much time it took for me.

I heard Lance mutter something under his breath at my slow time, and gave a hard glare to him. Wishing so hard that I could find the time to punch him in the jaw… but I couldn't afford that time right now.  _ Patience yields focus. _ I remind myself. I just had to be patient right now. To let my feelings blow over. To find a medium ground between the two of us, to agree and conquer… but that was hard enough then as it is now.

I gripped the steering of the Galra ship, my knuckles turning white.  _ What if I wanted to stay mad? I was ready to let it go-but-but Lance went far. Too far! I shouldn’t have to let go-he should have- _

“So are we going or what?” Lance snapped.

I sighed, “Yes,  _ Lance _ . I was thinking about how  _ not _ to be seen by the Galra cursor.”

I didn’t have to look over at Lance to know he rolled his eyes. “Whatever, just fly low. You said we were far off for them not to notice, so why do you start worrying now?”

I gritted my teeth.  _ Patience yields focus _ . “They might see a rogue galra ship flying randomly and try to contact us. If you prefer, I wouldn’t like that to happen, would you.”

Lance sighed, leaning up next to my seat. Pointing to the left, he said, “Fly low with the trees for a bit. After a bit we wouldn’t have to worry about them seeing us, right?”

“Fine.” I admitted. It wasn’t like I had a better plan anyways.

For the next hour, I tried keeping a stable ship as close to the leaves as possible. It was harder than it looked, not only with an unfamiliar ship, but also with how close I actually was to the trees. There were a few times where I almost crashed and got a snarky remark from Lance.

Three hours later, I could fly higher up, and spotted a river next to a large old tree. Landing it and making camp with Lance, we got comfortable for the night. It was an hour or two before any sunset, but good enough.

The tree was large and a good cover. It was old, I couldn’t guess how much, but some parts were breaking off limbs with decay. It was up against a cliff edge, and it was as tall as the cliff itself. Flying, I didn’t even see the cliff as the tree covered it up.

Next to the tree, or a few fifty yards, was a good stream. Large enough for a boat, but couldn't be called a river. The tree’s shadow looked to make anything under it die, so only grass was around the tree.

It was more open then I would’ve liked to set up camp, but we needed the water, and the tree help if any ships came over. I was hoping it would act like camouflage.

Lance was down filling the water bottles up, and I was busy finishing up with the fire. Once the orange flames started to lick the firewood, I leaned back and closed my eyes.

“That doesn’t look comfortable.” I heard from the voice above me.

I didn’t open my eyes right away, letting the warmth of the staring fire take over my senses. “So? We're going to sleep here anyways.”

“I wasn’t talking about the ground, but your right anyways.”

I opened my eyes in confusion, looking up at Lance’s caramel toned face.

Lance grestered to my leg, “It looks loose.”

I sighed, getting up again. I fiddled with the straps. “I know, but keeping the wooden sticks in the right place while trying not to disturb the wound, and tightening it isn’t that easy.”

Lance knelt down near me. I watched him for a moment, he held the sticks and gestured for me to start wrapping it tighter. I paused for a moment, before pressing my lips into a straight line as I worked.

Silently we did it, and after testing them, if I stopped myself from making any noise of pain, I could run fine, almost, and walk without much problem. I grinned slightly at it. At the small accomplishment of it. I could walk again… I could fight again.

The sun was setting to my back as I sat down next to Lance. He was setting up our rations near the fire. He slumped next to me, watching the campfire as out rations sat on top of it. Warming up to a less than disgusting meal.

“It's not an apology.” He said out in the silences. He glanced at me, before looking away. “It’s-it’s not an apology for this morning.”

I was silent for a moment, replying honestly,“I didn’t really expect it to be.”

“So you-?” He started, before I spoke again.

I gaze up into his blues eyes, reminding me of the Texas sky I looked up too for years. Seeing the clouds pass by, a plane, or the rocket that carried Shiro away. He met my galra eyes back, looked at them with hesitance. “We won’t get along, maybe never. But you know, like I do, we need each other's best to get through this.”

Lance nodded, “Exactly. I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

I look away, “Right, but whatever happens we need to help each other.”

Lance huffed, “Of course, even if I don’t like you, doesn’t mean your not my teammate. I don’t hate you either, mullet, we just… don’t get along.”

I chuckled, “One way to word it… “

Lance cracked a smile, “Yeah…”

The cracks of the flames when into the night. The wood darkened to black, but I couldn’t notice anything else. My thoughts replied again and again in my head until I spoke out my thoughts.

“What do you mean, you don’t hate me?” I said, pondering over the question. I hoped he didn't hear the uncertainty in my voice, what I thought I’d hear back. “Didn’t you say to yourself that I’m… that I’m…. I’m-”

“Because I don’t.”

I snapped my head over to him, trying to fight down the small hope that left in my chest. He gazed up to the tree branches above us, looking at the stars. 

“How-How can’t you! I’m Galra! I’m the-the enemy! You said it yo-”

“But you're also Keith.”

He closed his eyes, moving his head in my direction as he opened them lazily. 

“You may have purple ears or someday a tail. You may have Galra blood. But you're Keith, my teammate. I’m… I don’t apologize for all of what I said. I won’t say that I told you my thoughts in the best way… but I meant it all. Well, except for you being a despised Galra and all.” He rubbed that back of his neck nervously, “My words got heated the s’moring, so...um.”

My ears flickered, I tried not to let my mind panic slightly over my lack of notice of it occurring again. Or how often they were switching into the Galra ones.

“I said something I didn’t believe, and it seemed like I went back on what I told you before. Even if you don’t believe me now, I wouldn’t blame you, but I do think of you as the same. You didn’t know either, I can’t blame you for that. No one should. So all you can do is accept it, Mullet.”

“Some speech again, McClain.” I muttered.

Lance smiled, hitting me lightly on the back. “Hey, not speaking much today hit hard! I need to get my words in somewhere!”

I didn’t answer and looked into the fire. Watching it flicker with clench hands.  _ Accept it? How can I accept it, when I think I’m a monster myself? Would you lie to me Lance? Would you want me to go through more pain by believing a lie? Would you do that? _

I didn’t know. I didn't know what to do. Nor how to handle Lance’s apology to one thing he said. What could I think about the rest he also said?

I pushed my head into my arms. I could figure it out later, perhaps when sleep wasn’t my main contention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith's and Lance's relationship is like a roller-coaster to read and write. Which helps in someways to establish a closer bond between them in a life or death situation, but even for them it tiring at times. They still view themselves as teammates at best and enemies at worst. They aren't quite sure how to completely trust each other, only doing it when they are left with no other choice. 
> 
> Then there's the team which is falling apart. Pidge is feeling a lot of desperation on wanting Lance and Keith back, she doesn't want to lose them like she lost her brother and Father. She's fighting on how she needs to work and how to help. As being the "mind" of the team, she feels the burden of feeling helpless when she can't think of a solution. Allura is growing more distant as she feels like putting more stress on the team will worsen everything, and tried to hold the front of a strong leader. She feels like she was meant to protect her paladins but has ultimately failed with losing Lance and Keith. Shiro feels the loss of Keith and feels unbalanced like Hunk. Thus, Shiro is more irritable towards the others. Hunk is trying to keep everyone together with Coran, but he feels a loss in losing Lance as well. Another reason why his cooking is turning out well.   
> Poor Lance and Keith don't know how much the team needs them...  
> :D Welp more angst for everyone! Surely this won't turn out to be a big mess...
> 
> -Booke


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I'm back! Most likey anyone who was reading this fic has probably ditched this story long ago, but I'm just gonna keep going-  
> (Sorry I haven't been doing good updates you should just trust by now that its all sporatic.) Hope ya enjoy the longest chapter yet! I would like to say this is around the halfway point in this story now :D

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to calm myself. My heart thumped hard in my chest and I had to remember that I wasn’t in the midst of battle anymore. Blurred images passed through my mind of the last three hours. All going too fast for me to keep up. I shook my head, running a hand through my hair that was getting a bit too long.

_ Everything would be fine.  _ I assured myself.  _ Allura will-has-talked to the leaders and already contacted some of the small resistances already. The colony here was safe for now. Everything was fine. Great. _

... _ but no Lance or Keith. _ Stop. I reminded myself. I wouldn’t think of them if I had too. I wouldn’t-A shiver went down my spine at memories replaying. The pale face of Pidge looked at me hopeless and Shiro held such a wrath-I didn’t know what to do or say. I didn’t know how to hold this team together.

I rubbed my eyes. No, it was fine. Keeping Shiro calm, I hadn’t thought I would ever have to think about that, would be one priority. Then keeping Pidge fed and sleep deprived free. Allura was under Coran’s care, he had hinted as much to me in light conversation. Trying to make sure I haven’t fallen with the others down. Where they were becoming uncontrolled and irritable. Pidge was almost obsessive at this point, immediately after Allura talked to the leaders she was off and searching for any information. Thus, leading me here.

I opened my eyes to the steel door looming above me. High and mighty, put together better then the team was. 

I sighed, continuing thinking about it wasn’t going to help me in either way. I just had to keep myself straight so I could help the others. So I could help them help my lost friends.

With little to still no confidence, I opened the door. It was in a control room with screens that view outside the city. But all inhabitants of the room strayed away from that and surrounded one of the aliens on the planet.

They looked up at me when I entered, and I was surprised to see Allura already here before me. But I hadn’t really been rushing over. Occupied with too many thoughts at once.

Pidge sat in a chair with her computer up. Screen was blank with some sentences near the top. Shiro leaned next to the seat, his face devoid of any emotion he usually showed. Allura stood on the other side of Pidge’s chair, arms crossed with a small smile on her lips. Her eyes seemed cold and sent a chill down my spin. Reminding me of when my mother would catch me eating cookies in the dead of night but waited until the morning to give me my punishment.

“Hello Hunk,” Allura greeted, but her heart wasn't in her words. “I’m sorry to call you out here, but I thought you’d want to hear as well. Pidge was… talking to one of the workers here that saw a crash a couple of days ago.”

I nodded, trying to swallow down my unease feeling about this.

Pidge adjusted her glasses, glancing up at me before looking back down to her screen, asking, “So you were here, watching when you saw a ship crash?”

The Worm like alien hesitantly nodded, “Y-Yes, I-I and some others s-saw it! We-we in-informed the-the Galra and they-they came.”

“Why did you tell the Galra right away?” Allura asked.

“We-we tell them about-about crashes!” The Purple alien replied rather lamley, he was panicked but the others wouldn’t give him space.

_ This is an integration _ … I realized. Clenched my fist slightly, but didn’t say a word. There was no way the others would leave him alone until he gave us information. My heart jumped at the thought of lowering down where Keith and Lance could be. To find them again...

Pidge narrowed her eyes and started typing quickly. There were heavy silences that weighed down the room as Pidge typed. The alien looked at us with a fearful gaze, and glanced at the door. Most likely praying that someone would rescue him.

But the Alien gave in, “I-Me and s-some others hadn’t seen the-the ship near by and-and it just appeared out of-of th-thin air! The Galra t-told us to-to report any mis-mishaps… and-”

“Are you aware that it was a _ Lion _ that you saw go down?” Shiro interjected.

“W-well I-we-Ugh, ah, we-um,” The Alien stammered over his words.

“Well?” Pidge snapped out of inpatience.

“I-I am not sure! I told you-you I-the Galra looked not-not me!” He cried frantically, but with Shiro’s stern look he merely looked at the doorway and then to the floor reluctantly. He seemed to start to realize that we weren’t giving up until he told us all he knew. And his excuses only further the team's  persistence . 

“I-We saw a-a crash.” He said again, almost as to make sure we knew that fact as not to doubt that over his other words. As if that could be all he had to say about it.

“The Red Lion’s?” Pidge asked, yet her voice too, had gone cold. 

Everyone besides Coran had gone cold. Looks hard with a vengeance. I had known that they care about Lance and Kieth but… The look of Shiro standing over the Galra’s bodies without a flinch as he stabbed them popped into my mind… I didn’t think that it would change them  _ this _ much. Not that we didn’t worry or try-no, everyone on the team was frantic on information, but- but I was afraid of how much longer they can stay like this. Can  _ I  _ stay like this?

It would break us all. Unless… unless we found something. 

Which led Pidge and Shiro to be cold while Allura integrated them with a more caring tone-but I had known her, and I knew that it was icy, that something lay underneath it filled with regret and hate.-

“Y-y-yes! I-We think… We t-told the Galra t-that and they... came.” He said shaky.

“They took the Red Lion?” Allura asked, and the Alien nodded frisky. “And with any prisoners?”

“Two perhaps?” I interrupted.

The Alien looked confused, clearing debate in his mind what he could still hold back without any harm. 

“I think o-one? I only s-saw them take the Red-red lion. They had some g-guards around and the c-captain talked about a-a Paladin I think?”

Pidge glanced up from the images on her screen, brown eyes looking out from her round lenses. “Did they say if they were looking for them or if they had been caught?”

“I-I,” He went a pale purple as Shiro sighed, flexing his metal hand visibly. Clearly making it visible to the alien like a threat.  _ Shiro?... _ The Alien looked like he was dying on the inside before blurting out, “The captain got a-a call from some scouts. I didn’t hear anything from them but he-he asked if it was the Red p-paladin. That’s all I know! I sw-swear!”

So it's confirmed, the Galra  _ did _ capture the Red Lion again and likely Keith and Lance with it… I didn't know whether to be happier to know for sure, or to be wary of how to get them back. I didn’t need to look at the others to know that they wouldn’t stop until our team was back together again.

The Alien flinched as Pidge loudly slammed the computer down, with a cold smile from Allura as she said, “Thank you for your time.” The three of them walked out. 

The Alien sighed and looked up at, his black green mixed eyes looking confused at me. “Are you g-going to follow th-them?” He asked.

I glanced at the door, already knowing that Pidge would head towards the shipping docks, asking where the Galra cursor that had been here before had gone. 

“Soon,” I responded, then scratching my head I added on. “But not now, I want to… I want to first apologize for their behavior. We want to get our friends back as soon as possible, I hope you understand that?”

The worm muttered something before speaking up high, “It can be forgiven.”

My shoulders slumped as relief washed over me, “Thank you, you don’t know how-”

The worm grumbled, “I understand, but I would at least like Voltron business to stay out of my own, thank you!”

I winced, “Y-yes, I’ll go now. But thank you for complying on that information, you don’t know how much it means to the team…”

The worm huffed, shaking its head, “Just be going on your paladin.”

I nodded with a smile, almost leaving before the worms voice hastily added, “Hyftix!”

I frowned, turning around to face him again. “What?”

“Hyftix is my name, Paladin. Call around this area if you ever need my help. You're at least less rude then the others and I’d be willing to help you, at least.”

“Oh,” I responded, before realizing he was offering some friendship. “ _ Oh! _ Well thank you Hyftix, I hope I can repay my debt to you. I’m Hunk.”

“Hunk?” The wo-Hyftix said, testing the alien word on his tongue. “Well,  _ Hunk _ , Yellow Paladian let us meet again in the space.”

“I-uh, yes.” I stammered, forgetting the common way to say goodbye in the culture and just copied Hyftix. “Let us meet again in the space.”

Hyftix gave a nod, before the worm crawled his way out a back door. I awkwardly waved to the Alien, friend somehow, and left as well. Walking down the hallways towards the exit. I was nearing the stairs when I had apparently caught up to Shiro.

“Shiro!”I called out.

Shiro turned around, and his past demiter had faded and he looked… he looked calm again. I couldn’t tell if the thought comfored me or scared me more.

“What do you need, Hunk?” He said it so casually, like a few minutes before he hadn’t just theated a civilian silently.

Memories and words came to mind, and I opened my mouth before I could even process what I was going to say… but they died on my tongue. I couldn’t ask  _ why _ Shiro was acting this way, no matter how natural the response seemed to be to me. No... I knew. I knew how I couldn’t cook as well as I used to. How I couldn’t sit in the kitchen for hours because that friend-best friend wasn’t there to make it enjoyable again. I couldn’t ask because the loss of both of them was doing the same to me as to him. 

He was just more violent. And the only person who would be able to calm him-or stop him… was Keith. And no matter how hard that thought was to swallow, it was true. So I stood with my mouth, but with no words in mind.

“Hunk?” Shiro asked at my hesitents.

I shook my head,”Nevermind.”

My question had already been answered. 

“Oh, um, okay.” He knew it was a lie. I could tell it in his eye, but he brushed it off. “Then let’s go to the Castle, I think that Pidge can find out where the ship went but Allura will need some help getting more perversions.”

I gave a dool nod, and followed his steps silently.

-

I drummed on the dirt next to fire, bored out of my mind. I let the beat take my thoughts as I hummed a tone with my soft  _ thudding _ . 

Keith sighed, “Lance, you realize you can go to sleep. I said I'd take first watch.”

I shrugged, “Nah. Besides, shouldn’t an injured person need more rest, right?”

Keith rolled his eyes, but his ears were still perked up high. The extra noise was probably keeping him up with me. I looked away, knowing that Keith could feel my stare. I didn’t want him thinking I wasn’t true to my word, I didn't think he was… that different. But hey, I was still getting used to it too! It's not like he was trying to-

My hand missed a beat and my whole song faded, grumbling I started again with something new. I didn’t want to dwell on my thoughts during the morning or the argument altogether. I needed a clear mind to survive. 

My tune started to sound pretty good. My hands getting a good beat, my older Brother would be proud of me. I snickered at the thought. The night had come and it was almost pick black, the only light was the stars and the fire. Apparently this planet thought it was too good for any moons. But the stars were bright enough to see anyways.

I glanced up at the tree, the leaves swapping in the breeze as the fire crackled. The stream poured on without a second thought as nightly critters moved throughout the forest.

It was a beautiful night. I closed my eyes, listening to my beat in the forest. Then all of the sudden stupid Mullet head ‘shh’ me.

I stopped my hands, glaring at him, “Mullet! You don’t get to ‘ _ shh _ ’ me! I was making fine music and-”

“Shut up!” He hissed as his hand was already pulling out his bayard.

I fell silent, looked at him and realized what he meant. I slipped on my helmet and grabbed my bayard as I watched Keith. His ears were perched up high as he surveyed the area. Dark purple ears twitching like a cat's from some far off noise that I couldn’t detect.

As silently as I could I grabbed our bag of supplies and placed it over my jetpack. Making sure that it wasn’t under where the flames came out. Keith glanced at me with the bag and nodded towards the tree.

I started walking backwards towards it, stepping slowly like how Keith was doing it. He stomped out the fire and kicked some of it with his good leg before following me towards the tree. We didn’t stop until we were right by the trunk.

Keith was still tense, looking like he could jump into action at any moment. I suddenly felt the anxiety come up, wondering when the attack could come. I glanced around the area before my eyes landed on something. 

“Keith,” I whispered. “Shouldn’t we move the ship? Or here's a brighter idea-fly  _ away _ in the ship?”

Keith didn’t so much as twitch his eyebrow at the response, replying quickly back. “They’ll see us and we’d get a better chance at staying hidden right now.”

I glanced back out to the forest.  _ What would be our chances if we stayed cornered like this? _

“...they?” I asked hesitantly.

Keith paused, glancing back to me before letting his eyes go back to scanning the terrain. “I can’t tell. I can only hear a buzzing sound. Like an engine.”

I frowned, falling silent again.  _ What does that mean? _ I wondered, trying not to let paranoia creep up into my mind. Almost hoping that Keith was hearing a bug. Boy wouldn’t that be funny. Yet even at the thought, no smile crept onto my lips and I only stood still next to Keith. 

It felt like an hour had passed and nothing happened. Once they sound Keith had been so detailed that he must have died somewhat as he took a step out of the tree’s cover. I followed him, trying my best to hear what he could, and let my eyes wander around the area. We hadn’t made it even that far before Keith froze again, ears straight up again.

I tried not to sigh, hoping that we wouldn’t be up all night with this cycle. I was about to make a retort when suddenly a light appeared over the stream and hovered over the ship.

With a sharp inhale from both Keith and I was scrambled back. Letting the thick tree trunk cover us. Keith held his bayard out, ready to attack and I held mine in a firm grasp. Trying to keep my breathing steady as I watched an odd shaped ship land.

I held my breath as the doors opened and for only one person to walk out. Clad in full armor, they surveyed the area, Keith and I ducking when they looked towards the tree. They turned to the ship again and walked carefully towards it to investigate.

I heard the  _ buzz _ of a bayard forming and almost like second nature I pulled Keith away from view of the soldier. Keith yanked at my arm, and I had to fight to get my voice to a soft whisper.

“What do you think you're doing!” I asked.

His ears pressed flat against his head as his lips curled into a snarl. “We need to make sure they don’t call anyone else here. It’s one person I can take them!”

I shook my head and looked at him with disbelief, “What happened to wanting to keep cover?!”

Keith glanced away, “They have evidence that we’ve been here so we need to either make sure they don’t call others, or we need to move out!”

I glanced at the soldier, now coming closer to the make-sift fire. Gritting my teeth I looked around for some quick way out. Something in me was uneasy about them.  _ Why one? That wouldn’t make sense if they were part of the scouts… and their ship? Who were they? _

But not to my luck or anything else, we were backed up to the cliff, and the only way out was towards the soldier. Sighing softly, I looked to Keith, it looked like it would be his-

There were suddenly more ships, flying in out of nowhere that just landed. Keith’s eyes went wide as he froze next to the tree. I glanced out to see about six Galra ships landing as the soldier wandered near their own ship again. Arms crossed, but still gazed at the area around. Then five Galra came out of about three ships, walking towards the lone soldier and talking to them.

The soldier nodded and pointed to the tree. Ducking back behind it and swearing in spanish a few times I tried thinking of some sort of plan. Hiding like mice in the cat's bowl was not how I wanted my day to end. Maybe I should have taken Keith's offer and gone to bed...

“Well don’t you have a colorful language?” Keith remarked.

“Shut it.” I hissed, glancing out again.

“How many?” He asked, now seeming more unwilling to jump into a fight.

“About 15 out, 16 counting the lone soldier.”

He nodded, frowning as he moulded the numbers. He gritted his teeth and glanced out again. The Galra soldiers were at our campfire, looking it over and talking. We had limited time to move, even one saw or even got a glimpse of us, it was over.

_ No, it won’t be over. I’ll-I’ll think of something! Anything would work. It would have too… _

I looked up at the cliff, at how the tree leaned up against it. Then back out at the ships…

“I have an idea.” I said suddenly.

Keith looked at me, “What is it?”

“I’ll explain on the way, because we have to move quickly.”

“On the way-?” 

“Were going to climb the tree up to the cliff.” I announced to him.

His face went blank for a moment before he looked annoyed. “Lance, I can’t  _ climb _ ! Not like-not like this!” He pointed to his wounded leg, that so far up until now with the stretcher we had made was doing well.

I shook my head, we didn’t have time, “It’ll have too.”

“I. cannot. Climb.” Keith growled out.

“Please!” I begged, “Trust me Keith. My plan before worked, didn’t it? I’m asking you to trust me now.”

He looked at me with a hard gaze, then up at the tree and down to his leg.

“Fine,” He admitted, shoulders still tenses as he looked warily upwards. 

I nodded, “Okay, well first we don’t have time for any stealth, so climb the tree as quickly as you can. The Galra can’t shoot up in the limbs as well with aiming, so we have a chance.”

Keith nodded and without another word started climbing with a boost from his jetpack. Following him, we started climbing and used our jetpack for higher branches. I heard shouts from below us and a few blasts of a gun that never hit us. Orders were shouted, but Keith and I kept climbing higher and higher up.

I grabbed a branch and pulled myself up, then reached for the next as I tried to stand up higher-my foot slipped.

I was falling. My breath was stolen away as I was left in midair to freefall. Life seemed to go slower.

I was falling. I didn’t know how high I was up, I hoped not far otherwise it might be my last feeling.

I was falling. My eyes widened as my hands effortlessly tried to grab something.

I was falling, but then something else grabbed me.

Keith grunted as he held my wrist with one hand. I was left hanging onto him as he tried pulling me up onto a branch he was hanging off of himself. He’s legs moved up, as if their support helped Keith pull my extra weight. 

_ He can’t pull me up _ . I realized,  _ not with my weight. He’ll end up falling himself. _

I grabbed his arm, feeling his grip slip as I tried looking for a nearby branch. The only one was the one above me. Biting my lip, something I rarely did as it ruins your lips, I adjusted my aim, and broke off from Keith's grip and boosted myself to the branch. 

Steading myself better on the branch I help Keith up, “Thanks bud.”

Breathing heavily, Keith nodded, looking up at the branches as they got closer together. We were near the top.

“What do we do when we get up that high?” He asked.

“We jump.” I answered.

“Jump?!” Keith asked before being rudely interrupted as a miss shot fired between us.

Ending the break time and near life and death experience we pushed up the branches until we were right among the leaves. The air felt sweeter and more breathable. But I didn’t have time to notice all of the details.

Two Galra ships were flying above me, yet didn’t fire, which I took as a good sign. Keith’s mullet head popped up next to me, ears high as he too took note of the ships.

I looked around to see how close the cliff was, and if I remembered right we could… The cliff was about a few yards away, and launching myself into the air with a jump and a helpful jetpack boost, I landed on the cliff. Or to be more spiffic, I had too much speed and stopped too soon and tripped.

Standing up quickly, with a blush of embassament on my cheeks, I glanced back to see Keith doing the same. He jumped from the branch and his booster flared up and carried him close to the cliff before cutting out a moment and starting up again. With the slight bum in Keith’s ride his landing was rough, but he barreled and rolled onto the cliff once close enough and his jetpack shut off.

I helped him up as the two Galra ships flew above. I looked down from the cliff, seeing the soldiers scurry to their ships, but it looked like the lone soldier just stood next to our stolen one. Guarding it.

_ Are you kidding me?! _ “Okay, new plan.” I stated to Keith.

I looked over the area as my eyes landed on something else, “Do you think you can flying a different Galran ship?”

-

_ I hate this plan. I hate this plan. I hate this plan. _ I chanted in my mind.

“You ready?” Lance asked, eyeing the Galra ships that started flying up towards the cliff.

“I hate this plan.” I responded.

Lanced shrugged, “Didn’t expect anything else from you. Now grab my hand.”

I snapped my head over to him, “What?”

Lance rolled his eyes, “Mullet, your going to fall to death if your jetpack stop randomly again, thus then I will be here to stop your decent of stupid speed.”

“Like your one to talk about falling.” I retorted.

“Just hold my hand!” Lanced snapped, holding it out reluctantly.

I grabbed it, muttering under my breath about the idioticness of this plan but it's the only one we had.  _ I hate this plan more and more.  _ Stepping back a few feet, I nodded to Lance. We ran off the cliff and jumped.

The wind blew in my ears as my hair flew back. The ground looked so far down underneath me, but I didn’t feel panicked strangely. More like I was flying in the moment. The tree was coming quickly but my booster snapped into action with Lances as we flew up.

The Galra ships buzzed, flying around us, but not close enough to hit us. Then after our moment into the air, my booster cut out. Then my hair on my neck lifted up as the tree leaves came closer. Lance was still above me and I held onto his hand like a lifeline. 

With my weight pulling him down we started gaining speed to our decent. The leaves were knocking on my shoes as Lance barely kept me up. Then again, my jetpack started up again and I was rising above the leaves as they soon ended. Leaving only the barren ground and stream.

But as soon as the jetpack had turned on, it stopped again and left Lance and me falling. It was quicker than I thought, and in a matter of seconds the ground was under my feet and I yanked my hand away from Lances as I barreled. Trying to end my speed to land. 

I grunted as my bad leg was jolsled. As soon as my feet hit the solid ground again, I leaped up, ignoring the pain, and charged to the ship in front of me. I passed Lance, who was as well getting up and doing his part, and charged into the foreign ship.

I burst into the first room, hit the pad on the side of the door as it swinged out to reveal the control room… there were a lot of buttons. I heard Lance blasting outside of the door at some target, and I forced myself to focus on the ship instead.  _ Lance said he’d take care of it, trust him _ . My mind whispered. I ignored the voice in the back on my mind that just said fight.

I looked over the controls, the fling sticks were easy to spot out, but the other buttons left me at a loss. So I did a Lance and started to press some random ones. Apparently I was lucker then him as my first button started the engines and I heard Lance get on.

I pressed another but it didn’t do anything. And another. I flinched as I heard Lance swear and a missed shot from his gun. I hit one larger button and I felt the ship rise. Next I hit the button next to it, praying it would close the entry. 

Suddenly Lance yelled, swearing in his colorful spanish and I snapped my head around to see beyond the control room to where Lance was. The door closed but someone else came in too. The lone soldier.

I rushed out of the seat, hands grabbing my bayard but Lance stopped me with a yell as he stood between me and the soldier.

“I got this! Just fly us out!” He shouted, not even leaving his eyes off his target.

I nodded, dropping back into the pilot seat just in time to feel the jolt of the ship as some ship shot at us. Ignoring the rushily behind me of Lance and the armored soldier falling, I yanked the ship up quickly as I started flying as fast as possible out of the atmosphere.

The Cameras pooped up next to my view of behind me, giving me a perfect view of my surroundings. I smirked, this was going easier then I thought. I had three Galra ships following me at their top speed, but it seemed like I was faster still.  _ Interesting… _

I pulled down on the controls, letting the ships  _ zoom _ above me as I then pulled up again to follow their trail. There were buttons on the top of each hand hold. Guessing their purpose exiticlly, I aimed towards the ship. One went down immitaly as its wing got hit and left a trail of smoke. The two ships sepater after that.

Following one of the ship’s bummy trails, I tried to strike him too, but he moved too much for the shot to get him. I gritted my teeth as out of the corner of my eye I saw the other Galra ship get behind me. 

Pure reaction took over, and I maneuvered and yanked the ship to the side as I tried to chase off the following ship.  _ This ship was fast, but these smaller ones were made for speed only… if only I- _

A smirk crawled on to my lips,  _ you wanted to play? Let's play. _ I thought.

I glanced around at the camera’s trying to get the location of the second ship. Finding it, I swiveled around, leading the ship into my trap. But as soon as I almost had it all in place I heard a yell.

“Watch out!”

Every instinct took control and I dived out to the seat and pulled out my bayard in one swoop. The armored soldier missed their hit and bumped into the seat. Lance rushed in, no bayard in hand as he grabbed their arm yanked them back as he went for a punch.

They ducked and I swung down at their position, only for them to roll out of the room. Lance charged forward again, but stumbled as the ship jerked from a blast. Swearing, I leap into the pilot seat again and swivel the spaceship away from any more attacks.

The Galra had seen the hesitation and swooped in for their chance. I gritted my teeth, not again. I looked back to see Lance on the ground with the Soldier pinning him down.

I suddenly yanked up, causing the soldier to lose their grip and Lance to again have the upper-hand. I looked back at the ships, they were still separated so I could still try to go through with my plan.

I lead the following ship like a nettle with string. Aimed and charged towards the second ship. Pulling the controls sharply to the left as I nearly missed the second ship and heard the  _ crack _ and  _ boom _ of the two ships crashing into each other.

With a confident smile I flew up higher into the space, but only for my blood to rush out of my face as I looked in front of me. In my Lion, the larger ships hadn’t been so intimidating. Only bigger, but destructible still the same. But now… now I felt like a mouse in the lion's den.

The cursor ship loomed above as it looked down on a smaller ship such as me. The scouting ships, now ready for battle from someones single, were filling out and filling the space.  _ Trapped _ .

I tried to pretend I wasn’t scared. That the shake in my hands was the adrenaline running through and not the intimation of what lay ahead.  _ I’m gonna-I’m going to be back there again… aren’t I? _

The thought sent chills down my spine, and the fear started to rise in me. But someone else's face, voice, spoke up in my memories…

“ _ Patience yields focus, Keith. Remember that.” He said it with a smile as he ruffled my hair. “Once you understand that, you’ll see everything more clearly. You can be a leader with that.” _

I closed my eyes briefly, letting my thoughts be calmed by the shakely inhale of my breath. Letting them crash doan and fade away with my exhale like a wave.  _ Patience yields focus. Focus. _

I opened my eyes, seeing the horad of ships coming towards me. Hearing the tumble of fighting behind and focused. There were tons of ships, yet not in any line. Thus meaning if I was quick enough, I could dodge my way through them and possibly away and try to see if I could outrun them.

It wasn’t the best plan, but it was my only one.

Taking another shuddered breath, I shouted out to Lance. “Get ready for a rough ride!”

“That wasn’t rough!?” He shouted back.

I pushed the controls forward and headed straight towards the gauntlet. In seconds the ships came like hoards of flies. But I wasn’t about to back down. Keith Kogane  _ never _ backed down to a fight. _ And it wouldn’t be today either. _

Yanking the dual steers forwards the Ship jerked right away into the fray. Seeing an invisible path I followed. Weaving through ships gapes with some narrow misses. The Galra ships didn’t even try to shoot me, too occupied with either trying to follow me and not crashing into the other ships.

I could feel the adrenaline in my fingertips as instinctive push, pulled, and yanked on the controls. Moving experitly through the ships and calculating how much space between each one so as I get safely through. I was impressed with myself, but that only widened the smile on my face.

I was getting through the minefield. I could feel the stares on me from behind, the trashing of punches and kicks had died down as they were holding on to my rough ride through the fleat.

I was making it through, I saw the end in sight. The ships were further apart and I could clearly see the open space away from them. My hopes rose-then dashed away as my smile faded.

Two ships jerked in front of me and shot from behind me, with a quick glance at camera’s I saw three ships following me, had caught up. WIth more room they had time to swing around.

Cursing, I leaned down on the controls and went under the two ships. But that only led to there being five following ships and soon to be more. One shot hit me and the ship jumped forwards and I soon wondered how much this ship could take. Was it even a battle ship to begin with?

Pushing the thoughts aside I tried to shake the ships and managed to hit one ship. But a minute later another ship took its place. I felt some sweat start to drip from my hair. My ears were pressed down in a sigh of worry.  _ I wasn’t going to make it _ …

There was a crash behind me and glanced back to see Lance still fighting the armored Galran and getting his butt handed to him. He was getting tired out too quickly.  _ He was used to long range combat, not close hand. He might lo- _

Sighing through my clenched teeth, I yelled out to him. “Lance!”

“I’m busy!” He replied.

I tried leveling out the ship for him, “Switch!”

I didn’t wait for his reply as I launched myself towards the attacker and let my bayard form into my hands. Swiping downward at them, they crossed their arms as the bayard nicked their arms.

They kicked out towards my chest and pushed me into the wall. Trying to recover quickly, and dodging to the side as they went in for another hit, I was positioned right behind them. As soon as I was about to attack the ship leapt up for a minute and caused me to lose my footing and sled to the first wall.

The wall bumped my wound and I flinched.  _ How did Lance fight while I was flying?! _ I wondered. But then grabbed on the floor as I floated up as the ship did a dive down. Looking across from me to the soldier I was grateful that they were having just as much difficulty as I was.

The soldier was moving slower than they had before. Most likely bruised from before by Lance. For once I was glad Lance had gotten the first part of that fight, lending me some ease with my injury.

Then an idea started to form as I grabbed the wall again to keep myself grounded. Lance was having as much difficulty as I was so then....

As Lance twisted in the air and the two people in the back were having the hardest time staying put, I slowly moved towards them. Once close enough, I tried waiting, but the soldier was too quick and launched onto my plan. Leaping at me I ducked on her aim and rolled onto the ground. Accident dropping my backyard in the process. It deformed back into the handheld. The soldier looked at it with me, then up again.

Almost like we read each thoughts, we dove for the bayard. But then the ship swirled suddenly to the left and we slid. Bumping into the wall as the soldier lay ahead of me, I saw the Bayard within reach. I desperately grabbed for it and launched up into the air with my good leg as I activated my sword and swung it at their head.

The black glass helmet looked up at me as I swung. I could almost see the wide yellow eyes as my blow struck, sending them flying to the floor. Steading myself and leaning heavily on my better leg, I tried catching my breath. A sharp stabbing pain in my chest started and I almost groaned.

I hugged a wall as Lance dove again, trying to keep my breathing steady and not to vomit, which sounded tempting to do right now. I looked up at Lance’s screens, Seeing more ships as he yanked and pulled on the controls.

Noticing my presents now, he asked shocked, “You got them?!”

I nodded, not ready for words until the pain in my side stopped.

I patted his shoulder, saying I would take over. He frowned, but jumped out of his seat for me. I settled my hands on the controls, slightly different shaped then Lions. With a determination I swung the ship around to face the followers. Flying above them, as Lance held the seat with a strong grip as he didn’t want to fall, I looked for an opening. 

Finding one I started flying in the opposite direction letting the followers follow. Then taking another long breath, the pain was subduing quickly in my chest, I tightened my grip on the steering. 

Looking at the line of ships behind me I suddenly pulled as high as I could on the steering. Flipping up high with a yelp from Lance, and started shooting as the line beneath me. Then yanking on the controls I flip the ship right side up as I charged towards the opening into almost open space.

Lance then, almost like a curiosity curse of his, saw a lever and pulled it. It was the stupidest, but best thing he had ever done. It launched us faster than before into space, and almost like it had a mind of its own, it started going in one direction for about thirty seconds then stopped in the middle of open space.

Both of us were silent for a moment. Waiting and watching the screens for something to happen… but nothing did.

“Did… did we do it?” Lance asked softly.

I started in amazement. Almost in awe at how we even escaped that pickle. “I think we… yeah.”

Then after a moment of realization Lance ‘woop’ out loud, “Yas! Beat that Zarkon!”

I chuckled, and felt a smile form on my face. I looked up to Lance and raised my hand. Immediately he high fived it did a fist bump and we celebrated for a minute. Laugher and a few shouts of joy as we express our excitement. We had won against the impossible.

“Dude, half the time I wasn’t even sure what was going on!” Lance exclaimed.

I nodded, “Sorry about the ride, I was trying not to get into range.”

Lance scoffed, “Sorry? Keith, come on! We rocked it!”

I grinned at that as Lance friendly punched my shoulder.

“Just for the record,” He said pointing a finger, “I helped beat down the guy for ya.”

I rolled my eyes playfully, “Sure you did and your amazing hand to hand combat skills helped you.”

“Hey!” Lance went pink in the cheeks as he crossed his arms, annoyed.

I rolled my eyes with some amusement, but my voice died as I saw something move in the camera. My face went blank for a moment. I almost felt like screaming in frustration if I could get enough energy to do it.  _ Can’t we get a break for once? _

I looked over to the screens, ignoring Lance, and with dread saw what it was. My joyfulness vanished in seconds as my anxiety crept in. Hope was trampled in and was broken like glass.

“Mullet?” I heard Lance asked.

I rush over to the screen, looking at the lone ship and checking the other screens. They were empty, but the one larger ship was coming in closer. It hadn’t been there before, and we were in open space. Meaning that it just either wormhole all the way over here or speeded its way. Whichever option just led to the same conclusion.  _ It was here and it was coming for us. _

Lance leaned over my shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of the ship as well. He tensed beside me, and suddenly my mouth went dry. I felt a drop of sweat fall from my forehead to my chin. Realizing the situation as Lance talked idly.

“What do we do?” He asked. “Just fly away? Just do the speed thingy like before?”

He pulled on the lever again, but it didn’t move the ship. Instead it had a blue light that blinked next to it.

“That’s not a good sign is it?” Lance winned.

“Out of fuel…” I murmured softly. There was a freezing feeling in my legs, my wounded one felt like a mixer of a sickening warmth to pain. I felt a cold grip on the back of my spine as icy fingers wrapped themselves around the bone. I just stood there, standing helplessly.

But I had known about the fuel before. After we stopped in space. Lance had still had it down, not letting it up. Such a small detail that was overlooked. We had wasted our only way to get out. It didn't matter at all from escaping from all those ships… Trapped with our backs to the walls. A cat that caught its mouse and only seemed to be toying with it. Back into square one, only now I wasn’t alone.

That made it only worse.

“We could fire at them! Or, or, or-something!” Lance was despeart now. He pulled on my shoulder, eyes wide, unwilling to give up. 

“Were done.” I started more towards myself, looking at the cameras. “Caught. And we can’t escape this time…”

I almost laughed, a sickening image of the Druid popped up into my head.  _ He was right, it was hopeless to run. I was only cornered again, even after trying my hardest, I couldn’t escape Zhakon’s grasp. _

Lance looked at me with disbelief. Also like a gasp, he managed to get out, “W-what?”

I looked down, suddenly all the adrenaline rushed away. Leaving me tired and drawn thin. I was in pain and just  _ done _ with it all. I was losing my courage, it didn’t feel possible now. Maybe fighting wasn’t worth it. It had been fruitless from the start. If I hadn’t run at all I might have been better off. If I had-

“Where's your fighting spirit?” I heard, but I didn’t have the energy to look up. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and hide. Go back to my shack and live peacefully again. Forgetting life’s troubles.

My shoulders were slumped and I knew I looked defeated, but I felt done. Like every corner I tried to run to and get away was only met with another trap. I was tired of fighting pointless battles. 

“Maybe you're right…” I said into nothing, more of the memory that seemed ages ago. It had really been only this morning? Was time passing faster or slower? I could barely keep track anymore. “The team doesn’t need me… Allura is good at finding paladins, she can find a new red one.”

_ Thump.  _ There wasn’t a reply.  _ Thump. _ My heartbeat in my ears.  _ Thump. _ But I could hear in my chest.  _ Thump. _ The metal room only seems to reflect the silence back.  _ Thump.  _ Maybe-

“How could-how could you say that!” Lance yells. He gripped me by the shoulders and shook me. I snapped my gaze up to him, his eyes more reflect in the light now, glazed as he bore his eyes into mine. They looked for something, yet seemed fearful of what they would find. “I-no-we  _ need _ to keep fighting, Keith! What was it all for then just a minute ago? What drove you to be so daring? To fight for a chance!”

“Lance…” I could barely feel myself talking, my mind was in a haze. Tunnel like vision, where my thoughts felt too sporadic or too focused. My head ached in retaliation. “It's useless to fight. If they keep finding us and cornering us… there’s no point in destroying ourselves in the process.”

_ Clap. _ My head swung to the side as there was a sting on my cheek. I blinked once, twice before realizing that Lance had slapped me. I looked back at him questioning but didn’t get a chance to ask as he shouted at me.

“So  _ what _ if it's pointless! Fighting isn’t about winning all the time!” He leveled a hard glare as he pointed at me. His finger pressed on my armor. “It's about your will! To keep yourself from bending it for others and staying strong! It’s to look in the eyes of someone stronger than you and say back ‘I’m not going to yield you! Not now and not  _ ever!’” _

He was breathing harder, looking like he might collapse on the spot but he continued. Some determination in him, something he himself had been holding in himself.

“You had that fight Keith! You still do! Don’t you  _ dare _ ,” He growled out in a menace, “Lose it now. We are going to get through this together, and were going to fight this  _ together. _ ” Then, slipping into his quieter voice, he said. “Galra and anyone against us be damned. But we're going to fight, got that? I’m not letting you back down because you're scared. I don’t care if we're separated or captured- _ we’re fighting our way out together!”  _

He took a breath before adding on,  _ “ _ I don’t care if we never speak to each other again after this or we go back to being rivals. I don’t care as long you  _ don’t stop fighting. _ We do this, and we get out. Got it?”

I clenched my jaw. Nodding in an agreement, cursing myself for being weak in just that moment.  _ I will not break _ . I thought,  _ they can’t break me yet. I wouldn’t let them. I wouldn’t let them win. Fight. _

I felt like the dark situation was given a little light. A tin hole, but hope was hope. And if nothing else, as Allura seems to think, it spreads like a weed once strong enough.

Lance smiled, shaking at first but became stronger, it wasn’t his cheesy overused one on girls, a gentle one. Relief that something in his words took root. Put some strength back in. Something to stop the negative thoughts and put some hopefulness and courage in. Perhaps his consent talking wasn’t always annoying...perhaps.

He sighed, his tense shoulders dropping slightly. “Okay, okay good.” 

We glanced at the camera’s again, but found them empty and only jerked in the ship to conclude that we were being boarded. We were stuck.

Lance and I shared a glance, and with a nod from him I swallowed my unease. I didn’t just outrun the Glara a day for nothing. I wasn’t letting it go to waste. I wasn’t going to surrender yet.

A shared thought between the two of us, we didn’t even need to read minds to know.  _ We may be stuck, but were getting out of it together. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of Day four. Dawn of Day five.
> 
> Writer notes:  
> In the end, Lance is actually scared. In Keith’s mind he seems more confident, but in reality Lance was just as scared as Keith was in getting captured. Seeing Keith start to lose hope and his fight in the situation scared him. He knew that if Keith broke, so would he. In his mind, once Keith breaks, then he knows he’ll go too. Thats why he so focus on making sure he's strong. So when his telling Keith not to give up, he's more of begging him to not give up for himself as well. He doesn’t want to lose and makes Keith see that as well. Keith in the situation, as throughout hinted that he doesn’t want to go back to the Galra. So when for a moment he thinks hes safe, the next hes cornered again. Its happen throughout the last few chapters of events, so thats why it seems like he broke on the last one. He tried to not let it get to him, but then at the moment he felt to weak to fight again.
> 
> Hope you enjoy and see ya!
> 
> -Brooke

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, you made it. I love comments, btw, and it helps me get more motivated to write more chapters when I hear from readers who actually enjoy it. I do have some chapters already written out, so there will be more to come shortly! If any of you have some constructive criticism I am always listening! Have a good day, and stay safe.
> 
> -Brooke


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